Heifer Bling

Chest Press

2012-01-18T08:49:00.002-07:00

Went to the gym yesterday, and part of the workout was three sets of 12 dumbbell chest presses. Usually our chest workouts are either fewer reps, or kind of a pyramid (starting at lighter weights with more reps, and working up to heavier weights and fewer reps.)

Now the flashback. . . just a week ago, I had gone to the gym in the morning, and then went again in the evening with my wife. That day we did five sets of 10 reps of dumbbell chest presses. I complained to my wife that I felt week. In high school, my typical warm-up on bench press was a set of ten with 185 pounds. Then I realized that in that day I had done 100 reps of 100 pounds, and didn't feel so bad.

And back to the present. The trainer said he wanted us to go at least five pounds heavier than we usually do. We have a weird gap in our dumbbells at the gym, we have everything in five pound increments, except 60, 65, and 70 pounds. I usually use the 50's, or 55's when I do chest press, so I decided I'd push myself and use the 75's. I was happy that I could get out 27 reps of 150 pounds. I had to finish the last nine with the 55's.

The crappy part of the workout was that I started in the middle, and went really heavy. Then I had to go back to the first, and that involved a lot of burpees, and my chest was really tired. We also did tri-ball push-ups (both of your feet on one medicine ball, and then a medicine ball for each of your hands), followed by 30 more "atomic push-ups". The atomic push-up is a combination chest and ab workout. You put your feet on top of an exercise ball, or in the TRX, and do a push-up, straight into a pike.

Anyway, my chest is tired today!

Body Transformation Challenge

2012-01-10T13:47:00.002-07:00

So the gym is doing a body transformation challenge, or eight week biggest loser. I decided I'd sign up. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I'm half way to my weekly goal already, and it's only Tuesday.

Fun with the TRX

2012-01-07T19:22:00.004-07:00

I had to run into the gym this morning, I'm taking part in a body transformation challenge, and one of my friends was showing someone else how they had done a fancy push-up with the TRX. My friend probably weighs 80 pounds, so not as scary for her. I mentioned to Jason, my trainer, how I wanted to try it, but didn't think the TRX was rated that high. He told me that he had done it, and he out weighs me by 30 pounds. I thought I'd give it a try.

He walked into the office to register someone else for the challenge, and I did it. One of the other trainers was in the office and could see me and she got excited. Jason stuck his head out and asked me to stick around for a second. I had no idea why. He then asked if he could film me doing it. This time I didn't get the full push-up done. It felt like the bands were squeezing my shoulders, and my arms were below my chest, so I couldn't use my pecs. It does make a pretty good picture though n

I would like it noted that I was using extensive safety equipment. That mat underneath me is almost half an inch thick!

Holiday recap!

2012-01-05T12:40:00.005-07:00

It's time for the first annual holiday recap!

I don't know how much I'll remember, but I'll give it a shot.

My last post was December 14th. In that time, I built a table and a desk set. My mother, who is impossible to shop for, told me that she wanted a narrow console table for her entryway. She told me that I should start building, because I had a year to get it done. (I'll post a picture later.) I had some red oak lumber in the shop, so I decided to give it a go.

My daughter wanted a table and chair for her room. I, being so smart, decided that a desk and chair would be better. So I set out and made an old school style desk and chair. My daughter only got the oak plywood (hers was painted after all.) It is a nice bright purple. (I'll also update this with a photo later.)

That took most of my free time leading up to Christmas. We then had Christmas, which was good. The kids got pretty much everything they asked for, which wasn't too much this year. The oldest got a lot of "cool" clothes. The older daughter got some cooking stuff and art things, and a lalaloopsy doll (don't ask). The younger daughter got a lalaloopsy doll (don't ask), and a desk. The entire family got a Wii. The youngest was totally not interested, and didn't open his presents for days afterward. My wife got some clothes and a huge pan. I got a Roku II.

I'm moving the family away from cable tv, too expensive, and the Roku is awesome. The only drawback is it is hard to get sports. I also had to upgrade the router to make sure that the signal was strong enough. I'm also running Netflix on the Wii, but seem to be having network problems occasionally. I'll probably get a cheaper Roku player for the basement.

After Christmas we had a short work week, and then New Years Eve. I spent a good part of New Years laying down with the youngest. Part of his autism is sleep problems. We give him some medication to help, but sometimes it doesn't kick in very quickly. He was up until 11:20 p.m. I then got up, and played a few games of Uno with the wife and daughters. Then we went down and watched the ball drop in New York. Man, Dick Clark looks scary!

Then the youngest had to go in and have some dental work done. As part of his autism, he seeks for sensory input. One of his favorite is grinding his teeth. This has resulted in some bad teeth. We took him in, and he had to be sedated (general anesthesia). They weren't able to get great x-rays of his teeth in the office, so the first thing they did was take x-rays. They found worse problems than they thought, and he ended up with eight crowns, and numerous cavities. When they brought him out of anesthesia, his mother went back with him. I could hear his screaming from the other end of the surgical center. When they finally called me back, he had blood on his face and was throwing a tantrum on the ground. We think he was upset because he had Novocaine on top of the general. It must have felt like he had a bandage on his face, and he kept trying to scrape it off. I picked him up and took him to the van. He threw one more tantrum before I could get him in, in which he made it to the ground. I put him in, and strapped him down. About half way home, as we were on the interstate, he managed to squirm down in his seat until he caught his chin on the seat belt. I had to pull over so my wife could fix it.

We finally got him home, and he was inconsolable. We gave him his sleeping medication and he finally went to sleep. After he woke up, he was still dazed for the rest of the day. He was also dazed the next day. Finally, around 3-4 in the afternoon, he woke up and started to be himself again. Now he is starting to act normally, but the crowns are bugging him. (They left the crowns on his molars longer so he had difficulty grinding his teeth.)

Well, that pretty much sums it up. I'll update the post once I have the pictures. Hooray for the holidays.

My aching back, the remix (in a better way)

2011-12-14T09:28:00.006-07:00

Holy crap, after yesterday's workout my upper back (trapezius)was sore. It wasn't like I had thrown my back out, it was like I had kicked it's but.

We do a ton of back exercises: upright rows, standing bent rows, TRX Rows, shoulder shrugs, lat raises, etc. Yesterday we did some Jumping Jills. You might be saying to yourself, Jumping Jills, surely he has lost his mind. He means Jumping Jacks, but you'd be wrong. A Jumping Jill is similar, but instead of raising your hands above your head, you move them forward like you're clapping, then open them straight back. We perform these with resistance bands attached to the wall. As I did them, my back started to cramp.

Then I got on the train, and it kept getting worse. I got to work, and still worse. All day at work I sat in weird contortions trying to stretch it out, those muscles are difficult to stretch, at least for me.

When I got home, I convinced my sweet wife to rub my back. I tend to get some big knots right around my shoulder blades, and they were there with a vengeance. This time they went all the way across my back. My wife rubbed my back for at least 30 minutes, and still couldn't remove all the knots. Her hands were hurting, and she had to use her elbows. Her conclusion is that we will have to try again tomorrow.

So I go to the gym this morning, and of course there are more back exercises. Rope climbing, upright rows to name a few. I look at the trainer and tell him about it. His response? "I love it! Ha Ha Ha."

Thanks Jason.

Is this weird?

2011-12-13T12:51:00.002-07:00

I just realized that I can actually stick my chin in the collar of my buttoned up dress shirts. That seems weird to me. I think this means it is officially time to buy some smaller dress shirts.

Day two, week two

2011-12-13T12:36:00.003-07:00

Okay, so it is now day two of week two of my flush. So far I have encountered some problems, mainly holiday foods at the office! We have a special committee, I believe their official title is the "Some Sort of Committee", because no one really knows their focus. They have arranged a Festivus for the office. This will last all week, and is centered around Seinfeld themes. Mainly it involves eating. Today's theme is the Muffin Top. This morning I came in to find, muffins, cinnamon rolls, blueberry bread, and doughnut holes all laid out for everyone to sample. Being human I did take a small amount, but have adjusted other carbs out of my meals for today.

Yesterday, someone gave me a chocolate-bacon cupcake. I only ate a portion, but curiosity was killing me. It was reasonably good. (It was really good, it just felt odd to taste bacon in a cupcake.)

I was pretty convinced that the weight-loss would slow down this week, but in two days I'm down another pound. That means over the last eight and a half days I've lost six pounds total. This is ahead of where the flush says I should be, but I also have more to loose than many people.

This second week I have cut down on many of the carbs I eat, but don't have to do the extra cardio work everyday. (It's okay, I do some extra cardio in the form of restraining our dog as we 'proceed' around the block a couple of times. I usually get a two mile walk/jog in every night.)

I'll keep you posted on how it continues to go, but so far, so good!

Flush

2011-12-09T14:43:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to drop a note, which means have a big, long write up, about the new cleanse, or flush, I'm doing.

Over the past few months, I've become a little more lax on my eating habits. I've kept my caloric intake fairly low, but I haven't kept my meals balanced, and have gone back to carb-heavy eating. This has resulted in my weight loss plateauing (by the way, I spelled plateauing correctly on my first attempt, and kind of surprised myself.) I've still been working out very hard, and can feel a difference in how much muscle mass I have, I'm just not loosing the fat.

This month my trainer, Jason at Firehouse Fitness, has released a new 28 day weight loss plan. He uses some tips and tricks he learned while getting ready for body building shows. He has also warned us that once we are done, if we don't return to good eating habits, the body will pack the pounds back on. I plan on returning to my early workout eating habits after the next three weeks. This really isn't hard, it was just making sure I had a good protein/carb balance, and not pigging out on anything.

His plan, which he is selling so I won't give away much, is broken down over four weeks. During this four weeks, you need to be performing a resistance exercise routine three to five days each week. He also lays out a diet that consists of a good balance of protein and carbs, and involves eating five meals a day*.

During week one and three, you have a diet with more carbs and add in some cardio workouts on top of the resistance training. His plan lays out when to eat and exercise to optimize weight loss. If you are interested in purchasing his plan email him at muirfitness@yahoo.com, please mention my name.

Week two and four remove the additional cardio exercise, and cut the carbs in your diet. He still tells you when and what to eat, you just don't have to worry about the extra cardio.

So far, I've been doing it for five days, and have lost 4.5 pounds during that time. I can say that I've felt hungry at times, which is weird. I've eaten more for breakfast and lunch than I normally would. The extra cardio has made me tired, but I overall feel great. (The big problem with the extra cardio is that I'm going out jogging/walking and it has been extremely cold this week.) The jogging is making my leg muscles more tired than usual, but that's all good. Nothing like muscle soreness, eh?

As I go into week two, I'll keep you updated on the progress.

December First

2011-12-09T11:10:00.003-07:00

Seeing as it is right before the holidays, things have been busy. Not only that, I've been tired, thus the lack of posts.

The last two weeks have been pretty good, with the exception of the wrath of God, I mean windstorm we went through. Last Thursday morning, and I mean 12:01 a.m., we had a child who would not sleep. Our youngest has autism, and one of the interesting things about autistic children is they tend to have sleep problems. He sleeps really well, once we get him to sleep. We have to give him medicine to get there, usually.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011, we gave him his usual medication. We waited about three hours, and when he still wasn't asleep gave him some melatonin, an over the counter supplement. Melatonin is a chemical your brain produces when you should be going to sleep. So when the sun goes down, and you feel sleepy, that is partially from an increase of melatonin in your brain, or the long day you just went through. This still didn't produce any results except for happy screaming child jumping on our bed.

I had to work, so I was banished to sleep on the couch. My lovely wife sacrificed herself for my sake. (I read a study awhile ago that indicated that women who don't get enough sleep report it causing major strains in their relationships, where as men who didn't get enough sleep reported no change. Weird.) I woke up a little after 4:00 a.m. to hear major winds. This was to be expected as the weather man had indicated we would receive winds up to 70 mph. I went and traded places with my wife to let her get a few hours of shut-eye. I usually go to the gym, and thought I might have a chance if the youngest went to sleep. I laid down with him, and turned off all stimulus I could find. I finally got him to sleep about 6 a.m., when I was supposed to be at the gym. This is the same time that our power went out.

Now we have been lucky over the years, and have only lost power on 2-3 occasions. We live in an overlap area on the power grid. If the homes East of us lose power, we get it from the West side, and vice-a-versa. We went completely down. I woke my wife up to deal with the older children, and drove up to the gym. While trying to pull the van out of the driveway, it felt like the parking brake was on, but it was just the wind. I saw trees blown over, fences felled, and even street signs on the road. Also, no one had any power, not even the gym. I turned around and went home to get ready for work in the dark.

I usually take the train to work, and this was no exception. I live exactly .5 miles from the train station, so decided to walk, like usual. (I mainly did this because my wife had only been asleep for about one hour and forty-five minutes.) I will say that walking in 70+ mile an hour winds is an adventure. I was so cold. I was even whipped in the eye by a tree branch blown from across the street. I felt pretty lucky seeing the carnage a block North of our house. We are pretty sheltered and only lost a few shingles. There were houses that weren't even 10 years old that had lost the roofing on one side of their house. The really sad thing was the trees that were lost. Just East of the city cemetery there are 80 foot spruce trees. Now there are far fewer. The damage was even worse a little further North. I saw some pictures of stores that looked like a bomb had gone off in them.

Crazy.

Well, that's all the time I have right now. I'm going to try and get a post in later on my new "flush" I'm doing. Happy Friday

FREE!

2011-11-28T08:47:00.002-07:00

People occasionally place things on the counter at work to give them away. This was there today. Seems really random.

Holiday traditions have officially started

2011-11-22T08:19:00.005-07:00

Yesterday we started two of our holiday traditions. We actually completed one.

The first tradition that we started was making Jello for Thanksgiving. Now you might think I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but it is complicated Jello. First off, my family loves Jello. That is really an understatement. If any of you read any Terry Pratchett novels he often talks about how Dwarfs love gold, and finally one dwarf says, "No, we just say that to get it into bed." I kind of think my family has the same approach to Jello. If you go to my folks house on a Sunday night, and you just happen to be the first person there, you can eat the leftover Jello. If you aren't first, then you can complain that someone else ate it all. Especially if there is fruit in it, and by fruit I mean raspberries.

Holiday Jello is different. Some years ago, my mother came across an idea that involved multiple layers of Jello-y goodness. You mix half a pack, and pour it in a 9 x 13 baking dish. You let it set up. You then mix the other half, but instead of cold water, you add some evaporated milk. This makes it a nice opaque color. You then add this layer, and let it set up in the fridge. You repeat this process until the dish is full. This is typically one of the first dishes to disappear on Thanksgiving. It is my turn to make the Jello, so I'll post some picks after it is completed.

Last night we did our second Holiday tradition, letters to Santa. We've been doing this for a long time. Every year, we use the family home evening before Thanksgiving to write our letters to Santa. Everyone takes a turn reading theirs aloud, allowing Mom and Dad to take some notes, and then we "send" them to Santa. The traditional way to send them to Santa mimics the movie Marry Poppins. They are delivered up the chimney via fire. You see, Santa has a kind of symbiotic relationship with fireplaces. This is the quickest and most sure fire way to get your holiday list to the big man up North. There is a lovely picture of us posting our letters below.

Well, as we start more traditions, I'll let you know. Have a great Thanksgiving week!

Uneventful Thursday

2011-11-18T12:14:00.003-07:00

Thursday started out strong, with me waking up, looking at the clock, and then turning off the alarm and going back to sleep for another hour.

Following that I had to try and get the newest edition of our community newspaper, the Davis County Clipper, because my work's technical writer had an article being published. I zipped around to three stores, and no one had a copy. I finally ran over to their headquarters and put 50 cents into the machine. I then pulled out last weeks edition!

Well crap, there was no way that I could get one before work, so I headed over to the train station and caught a late train.

I got into work, and had a couple of meetings, and a webinar. Nothing too exciting. One of the meetings was a training on avoiding holiday related stress. This was put on by someone from Weber State University. The only problem I could see was that she started the holiday stress by giving us a test.

The important lesson I learned about holiday stress? If you don't want to do it, don't do it. That simple. If someone invites you out and you don't want to go, just tell them you're busy. They don't need to know that you are busy painting your toenails. That was the gist of the 45 minute meeting.

When I got home, my wife wanted to go to the gym. Since I had avoided it that morning, I opted in. The workout wasn't really that hard, when looked at as individual pieces. It was very tiring.

Firehouse Fitness has a main board where they post the exercises. This is broken down in five rotations to allow people to use the equipment more efficiently. Being a geek, I think of it like programming. We have a function, we'll call it the gym, that has a loop inside of it. We loop through the exercises on the board for as long as time allows. Definitely a Do While loop. You know, Do exercise While there is time left.

Thursday, we added some nested loops. For each rotation on the board, we did each set of exercises four times. This isn't that unusual, but usually we stick with doing all of the sets of one exercise, then move onto the next and complete all of the sets for that exercise, etc. Not Thursday, we did the exercises in a super-set. This means we did one set of the first exercise, then one set of the next exercise, then one set of the third exercise, then back to the beginning. I kind of think of this as a For loop. In this example it would be For(x<=1, x++, exercise).

The first rotation had you do 50 mountain climbers at one end of the gym. You then switched to frog jumps down to the other end of the gym. There you did 50 high-knees. You then frog jumped back to the mountain climbers. Do this times four. The frog jumps where the hardest part for me.

The next rotation was 50 jump ropes, followed by 20 round-house kicks with each leg, followed by 40 punches using the heavy bags. Repeat four times.

After that we moved to Five Hop-Touch-Reach, followed by ten burpees, followed by ten power-wheel extensions. Repeat four times.

Then onto 25 TRX jumping squats, moving your feet in and out. Then ten TRX Rip squat, and lat pull. Followed by climbing the ropes on the wall four times. Repeat four times.

The last rotation was ten weighted touch and reach, ten exercise band touch and reach, and 25 weighted punches. Repeat four times.

I made it through six rotation on the board. I haven't sweat that much in quite some time.

After that I was able to get my local newspaper, but I had to drive back to their headquarters to get them.

When we got home, the kids were all whining that they were hungry. Luckily I had planned ahead and had the rice cooker delayed timer on, so the rice was cooking. We were having tacos, rice, and beans, which usually doesn't take long. I felt especially proud that we finished at the gym at 7:00 p.m. I had found my newspapers, and was able to have dinner on the table by 7:18 p.m.

After that I did some dishes, and got the garbage out. We read scriptures, and sent the kids to bed.

Sexual Harassment and Wrestling Practice

2011-11-16T08:25:00.010-07:00

How's that for a headline? By the way, they aren't related events.

Yesterday our youngest was sick, he still is. He is kind of croupy, and didn't sleep well. This means that when I finally got out of bed I was tired, I hadn't gone to the gym in an attempt to get more sleep, and I had a slight headache.

As the day progressed, I had to go to our bi-yearly sexual harassment training. We have the head of the U of U's Office of Equal Opportunity come in, and she's an ex-detective. She is fairly entertaining, but not nearly as entertaining as sitting by my colleagues from UHEAA. Now the entire training goes over more than just sexual harassment, we also discuss the American with Disabilities Act. At one point the presenter mentioned that there is some Supreme Court case law that would suggest that erectile dysfunction could be considered a disability. At which point someone piped up with, "What kind of job does he do for the University?" That got a good laugh. Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent thinking about ways that we could be better at sexually harassing people.

I got a new computer at work, which is great. I got a computer with an Intel i7 3.4 GHz processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a graphics card with 512 MB of DDR3 dedicated RAM. This replaces my old Pentium 4 processor that sounded like a prop plane taking off every time I did anything. Sometimes just navigating to a new webpage would put such a strain on the system it would shut down. I was also updated to Windows 7 64 bit Enterprise edition. I like Windows 7.

By the time I got home, I had a headache. My wife commented to me that our mood-swings are offset. When she's in a good mood, I feel down. When I'm happy, she isn't. This proved prophetic. I took some medicine and helped make dinner (I put rice in the rice cooker.) I started to feel better, then my wife was made aware that one of our children had forgotten her homework at school, and another had left somewhere without telling anyone. She got upset. Weird.

I had to take the oldest to wrestling practice. It sounds weird, but there really isn't anything more manly than wrestling practice. On one hand, you have a bunch of guys basically hugging, and getting all sweaty. Doesn't sound to manly. On the other hand, these guys are trying to rip each other's heads off, and laughing about it. Very manly.

When we show up, the younger kids (K-4) are still practicing. I think there are roughly 8,000 of them in the Bountiful High Wrestling Room. At least that is how it sounds. I think that nuclear physicists should come study young child wrestling practice to get some ideas on how nuclear fission might work.

After the younger kids left, we started the boys running around the room to warm up. They did their stretching. Then we started on double-leg takedowns. This is a pretty easy technique, but one of the best. Basically you pull against your opponent, whether their arms, or shoulders, and when they try to back away you drop to your knees, drive your head to the side of your opponents side, and wrap your arms around both of their legs. Then you just drive with your legs, and take them to the ground. It is very much like a football tackle. We practiced singles and doubles for a while. When the coach tried to get the kids to gather up, my oldest and his training partner where in the middle of double-leg takedowns, and finished before running back in. Because they took so long, the kids had to do push-ups. My oldest looks horrible doing push-ups. His hands are way above his head, and it makes it too hard to do it from his feat, so he ends up on his knees with his but way up in the air.

Now we moved on to a request from one of the wrestlers, the Fireman's Throw. This is fun, because you shoot the leg, kind of like a single-leg takedown, but keep holding on to one of your opponent's arms. You then hook your other arm through their legs, sit on your feet, and throw your opponent to the side. Watch the video above, it's short, and a good throw. This one kind of confused many of the team.

It's fun to walk around and put different moves on the kids to show them how they work. My oldest was having a hard time throwing his training partner, who outweighs him by about 10 pounds, and is very good at defensive moves. So he adapted, and rolled him off of his head to get on top of him. The coach later showed them this as an alternative.

After this, we moved on to the Cross Face Cradle. This is pretty simple, but some of the boys had some problems. You lay your opponent out, and straighten their arm out. You then take your opposite hand, and put it across your opponents face and grab the arm you straightened out. You then basically pick their head up with the arm under their face (this doesn't feel great.) You bend them backwards until you can hook your other arm under their knee, and then grab the wrist that is under their face. Basically their head is touching their knee. This makes it easy to roll them onto their back for a pin.

We then practiced some counters to the Cross Face Cradle. One of which was when they had you on your back. Basically you would work your elbow free, and push against your opponents face with your elbow. You then put both of your hands on the knee in the cradle, and push to break their grip. Then you can escape. My oldest would get pushed in the cradle, and could just stretch his body out without having to use the technique. I had to explain that at sometime he would wrestle against someone who was stronger than himself, or had better technique, so he needed to learn it. His opponent on the other hand, usually couldn't get his elbow free because my son's grip was too tight. I think he has a natural talent for this.

We then had some actual wrestling. We did a minute of upright, then a minute with one kid starting on the bottom, a minute with the other kid starting on the bottom, then one more minute of upright. My oldest handled himself pretty well. He actually used a Fireman's Throw, and a Cross Face Cradle. By the last minute the other kid was wiped out, and just tried to run away from my son. This gave him an ideal time to use his Double-Leg takedown. It was cool to see him use the things he had just learned, and use them effectively.

We finished with a game of Sharks and Minnows, this is actual video from the game. For my family, this game will be familiar from the pool. The coach had everyone line up against the wall. He had them hold their hand above their heads, and hold up any number of fingers, as long as it was between 1 and 4. (Editorial comment: I'm not sure why I said the last sentence that way, but it seemed funny. Upon reflection it just seems kind of weird, but I still grin when I read it, so I'm leaving it.) He choose one group of kids, and they came out with him. They were the sharks. Everyone has to stay on their knees, and the goal for the minnows is to get by the sharks without them rolling them onto their backs. (When you play in the pool, the sharks have to touch the minnows when part of their body is above water.) This is pretty fun to watch, and is chaos.

My boy had a good time, even though he did complain about maybe bruising a rib or two, and having sore arms. His first statement was, "I'm going to go home, take an ibuprofen, take a shower, and go to bed." He then added, "Maybe I'll take my ibuprofen with the Dr. Pepper I bought earlier, then go to bed." I had to explain why drinking caffeine right before bed, especially for someone who rarely has it, was not a good idea. He then wanted to drink it for breakfast.

Oh to be young and dumb again.

Back to the gym

2011-11-09T14:27:00.002-07:00

So my son was sick yesterday, he actually had a fever, so we didn't go to wrestling. My wife had dinner ready when I got home, so we ate a little early, then she went to the gym. She had the excitement of hitting the 3,000 workout, and did more reps than I did.

When she came home she told me that Jason, our trainer, really needed my help, and I needed to hurry up and go back to the gym. I knew he was having some of the flooring redone, and figured he just needed help moving some Sports Court flooring. It turns out he was moving all of the flooring, both the sports court and rubber matting.

The flooring is pretty cool. It is individual 12 inch square tiles. They have two sides with loops, and two sides that click in. We were creative, and made some of the gym's logos in the flooring.

I'm glad I went, Jason seemed a little out of it. The biggest problem was that classes were still going on. I kept having to kick people out of my way. I ended up helping for a little over three hours. The floors look great. We didn't get the rubber flooring down, but that can wait until the weekend.

I did spend the three hours I was there bent over. So this morning when I woke up to go the gym, my lower back muscles where very tights, and they still are. So are my hamstrings. I think I'll try to hit the gym tonight, if I loosen up at all.

3,000

2011-11-08T13:33:00.003-07:00

I thought about making the title of this post something witty about Sparta and the 300, but I'm too tired. (By the way if you are not familiar with that story, go and get "Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae" by Steven Pressfield instead of watching the Movie 300. Excellent book.)

Today was 3,000 repetition day at good old Firehouse Fitness. I walked in, and there were only five exercises on the board. 1,000 Mountain Climbers. 500 Touch and Reach. 500 Push-ups. 1,000 Crunches and/or 1,000 Jump Ropes.

Have I ever mentioned how early 6:00 a.m. feels when you go to the gym? If not, it feels very early indeed.

We had more freedom to complete our exercises today. In fact, we do many variations of these exercises, and Jason let us choose our method and where we started in the rotation. Since they all looked unpleasant, I started at the beginning.

1,000 mountain climbers takes a little while to do. I did mine with my hands on a medicine ball, I like being up off the ground a little. I did them in batches of 100.

When that was over, I moved onto the Touch and Reach. This is a simple exercise that involves squatting down, and touching the floor between your legs. You then stand up, and extend your hands above your head. Think burpee without the push-up or jump. I've done many forms of this exercise, but kept it simple. I used a medicine ball in my hands. Some people got on the bosu, and used weights in their hands (for about 10 repetitions.) I saw some walk toward the exercise bands, but no one used them. No one used the small tires either.

At this time, it was getting toward the end of class. I usually have to leave 10-15 minutes early so that I can catch my train to work. I got down and did 50 push-ups, followed by 100 crunches. I kept this rotation up until I had to leave.

All-in-all, I did 1,900 repetitions this morning, and now want to sleep.

Everybody's working for the weekend.

2011-11-07T13:02:00.004-07:00

So, I'm back at work, and thinking fondly of the weekend.

This weekend involved a Scout camp for my oldest, snow, and cold.

The oldest went camping on Friday. He didn't want to take a coat, he didn't think he needed too much winter gear, and he fought his mother every step of the way. When I got home, I didn't give him options, although while he was looking for his boots, he sat his backpack down, and we had to run out to catch them as they left. This would have deprived him of his change of clothing, and most of his supplies.

While he was out having fun, my wife decided we needed to go out to dinner. We don't do this often, so we packed the remaining children into the van and went out. It was a fairly mellow meal, with nothing too exciting to post about.

Saturday morning I got up to get a head start on the laundry. I also cleaned the laundry room. By the time I was done with that, we'll say about 8:30 a.m., I walked upstairs and saw the scouts out in front of our neighbors house.

From my experience, they usually are not home this early. I also knew that they planned to go shooting to finalize their rifle merit badge. When I asked the Scout Master what was up, he looked at me and said, "We had over a foot of snow, and your son collapsed the scouts' tent on their heads." It turns out that at about 6:30 in the morning, they woke up, and were concerned about the amount of snow on the top of the tent. Someone told my son to knock some of it off, and he hit the side of the tent. By doing this, he snapped one of the tent poles, and the part of the tent at the peak ripped, resulting in the tent collapsing on half the scouts. My son, and his buddy were on the side that didn't go down, so they enjoyed every second. After they got this sorted out, they decided they were wet and cold enough not to hang around, so they went and cooked breakfast at the Scout Masters house.

On Saturday we received an invitation for my youngest daughter to test for the "Spectrum" program with the school district. This is the advanced classes. I'm not sure what we'll do about that. When our oldest received the invitation we told him about it. When he heard he would have to change schools, he didn't want anything to do with it. He wanted to stay with his friends.

Saturday we just did our chores and shopping. My wife is going to make the youngest son a "sensory blanket" for church. Basically it is just a weighted blanket that they can lay over his lap when he feels anxious. We went and go the supplies, and I got some fabric to attempt to make some new work pants. It cost me all of $12. We'll see how they turn out.

Church was uneventful. We then went and had dinner with my in-laws. Enjoyable conversation and "Grandpa's stew". It did get chaotic, but one of my brother-in-laws started playing a patty cake like game with my youngest. To get any kind of focus out of him is great, so everyone had a good time watching them give each other high fives and yelling.

Eventually we found our way up to my parents' place. My oldest always feels ill right before going back to school for the week, or going to church. He started playing this game, and I know it's horrible, but I just don't believe he is ill anymore unless there is puke involved. And only if I witness it. He ended up falling asleep on my folks' couch (it was an hour later than usual thanks to changing the clocks.) I ended up taking over the patty cake game, and added in an additional overhead flip of my son. I would lay on my back, with him standing above my head. I would pick him up, flip him down onto my bent, raised legs, and he would role off onto his feet. He loved it. Shortly after that we headed home with the weekend over.

Now I'm back at work, just working for the weekend.

November 3rd

2011-11-04T10:24:00.003-06:00

Not too much went on yesterday. Work, then home to cook dinner*, then a visit from the Primary presidency.

Work is going well, I cranked out most of the website changes that I need for next year. I'm still waiting on some information that I probably wont have until December, but it's nice to have a jump on it.

Came home, and my wife had baked some chicken and was going to make enchiladas. Since she still had some work to do, I volunteered to make the enchiladas. I used a trick that I learned about on Pinterest, which is a really random site where people can post things they find. Anyway, back to the trick. To get really well shredded chicken, you usually have to boil it. Baked chicken isn't the easiest thing to shred. The trick involves cooking your chicken like you normally would, then putting it into your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. You turn that on for a minute, and you have perfect "restaurant" shredded chicken. I made the enchiladas like I normally do, but my wife was so complimentary it was funny. Even when I was putting the leftovers away she wanted to have another bite.

The kids helped straighten our living room in anticipation of the Primary presidency's visit. They showed up, and I was sitting on a couch in the living room, trying to get our dog to come up to me so she wouldn't freak out our visitors. Instead she ran over to investigate, and (here is my sexist remark of the day) women being women, they stood in the open door exchanging pleasantries and let the dog out. So while they visited about how best to help our youngest child, I walked around in the cold and dark murmuring against them. (Not so much against them, more at them.) Our dog loves to explore once she gets out, so I walked after her towards her favorite places. She ducked into a friend's backyard that was pitch black. I followed her in, and she outmaneuvered me and ran off. At this point I had no idea where she was, so walked to some of her other haunts, all the while murmuring away. I finally found her when she scared a neighbor girl. She was just running away from me when the girl was getting out of her car. My dog didn't approach her or anything, just ran by. But a 60 pound animal running at you in the dark can be frightening. At this point I was really angry, walked out into the street light, called her name and told her to sit. This brought her up short, she trotted back to me, and sat down! I was so shocked that I was brought out of my anger, well mostly. Since I was half way around the block, I put her leash on her, and finished the walk, figuring that would help to calm her down.

When I got back, the Primary presidency was still there, and very apologetic. They had really finished their conversation, but replayed the highlights for me.

No exciting wrestling moves to talk about today, sorry. I will say I'm happy it's Friday.

Wrestling Night Two

2011-11-03T12:20:00.005-06:00

We had wrestling practice night two. It was a good time. We started with a game of knee tag, you just have to touch your partner's knee, then they're it. The kid my son had practiced with wasn't there yet, he has football before wrestling, so my son got with another kid his size. It turns out the new training partner has been wrestling for 10 years. I could tell that my son was a bit nervous when they started playing knee tag, this kid was good.

We started the actual practice with a review of the things we had learned the night before. My son did okay, but it was great because this new partner took the time to explain everything to him, and exactly why the little things were important. The picture above is my son practicing his sprawl. The kid must of thought that my son was okay, he would let him try the moves a couple of times with no pressure, then started actually wrestling him.

We finally started some new moves. First we started with talking about the referee positions. This took all of two minutes. Basically the lower position is kneeling on top of your feet, with both hands on the ground. It is a very solid position to be in. To get in the upper position, you walk up behind your opponent, and place one foot perpendicular to his feet (one of the coaches said you could actually stand on their feet.) You kneel with your other leg to the side of your opponents body, and on that side you hold his elbow with your hand. The other hand is wrapped around, and placed on your opponents waist. You then lay your head down on his back.

We then moved onto our first escape from the lower referee position, the sit out. This looks complicated, but it's not to bad. First you kick your feet out from under you. At the same time, you bend your elbow that is being held, and grab the had around your waist with your other hand. Now the trickery. You throw your knee across your body as far as you can, toward the elbow that is being held. You roll on your shoulder and knee, then to your other knee and throw your trailing hand between you and your opponent to make sure they don't follow you. You'll have to watch the video if you haven't wrestled.

My son's new partner patiently walked him through it, although it only took a few times. By this time, his former partner has showed up, and doesn't have anybody to work with, so my son and his training partner started taking turns. This kid was great, very patient and smart. After a little while, one of the high school wrestlers showed up, and helped with the other kid. My son was very proud that the experienced kid let him do it a few times, then focused on the other kid as he was having trouble picturing it.

I went and helped a few other kids, one who had played on our soccer team for a few years. I would listen to my son's training partner for the little tips, and pass them on. It was fun, because I had to actually show the kids how to do the move, then let them try it on me. Then they would try it on each other.

Next we moved to a simple move to hold your opponent down if you are in the upper position. I don't know the name of it, but you switch the hand on the elbow onto your opponents waist. The hand already on the waist grabs your opponents ankle, and pulls. You lean into your opponent, and drive with your feet until he is flat on his stomach.

This led to the first pin technique, the arm bar. Although the way we learned it was slightly different. Once you get on your opponents back, you thread an arm over the top of your opponents arm, then drag it back and put your hand on his back. It looks like your opponent has a chicken wing. On the other side, you slide your hand under their arm, and grab their wrist. You then swing your hips over to the side, and walk towards your opponents head. This twists them around, and flips them. In the video above the coach lets go of the under hook, but we were taught to hold on, and sit by there head. This results in them being halfway through a somersault. Their shoulders are pinned. Again, my son ran through it a couple of times, then they focused on his partner. When the coaches asked if someone would demonstrate what they had learned, the experienced guy told my son to volunteer. He did a great job.

This practice went so fast, it was great. As I was getting my shoes back on, my son's original training partner was close to me getting his stuff. His dad walked in, and asked him which coach had been helping him the night before, and he pointed to me. His dad introduced himself to me, and told me how much his son had enjoyed working with me, because he had been a bit nervous about starting out. I felt pretty good about that.

My son seems to really be enjoying this, and I think he'll do well.

Wrestling

2011-11-02T09:52:00.010-06:00

So the oldest started wrestling last night. He has not wrestled in the past, so this is a first. I'm pretty sure that his desire to wrestle goes back to his karate days. When he was in karate, we would watch some UFC together. I mentioned that the heavy-weight champion got his start by being a wrestler in college. He asked if it would make him a better martial artist, and I told him yes.

We showed up, and it's not the school season yet just a camp. His coaches had asked some of the parents to help, so I'm there even though I have virtually no experience.

The oldest looked pretty lonely for a few minutes, but during the warm-up run he saw one of the kids from our neighborhood who is a little younger than he is. We started off just practicing their stance. He has never been really good at being in a "ready" stance from soccer, and his wrestling stance is still too upright, but he is getting the idea.

They then moved on to the single-leg shot/take down. Basically you try to grab one of your opponents legs, then lift it up and trip them. We worked on this in two sections, the setup, and then the take down. The two kids I was helping, my oldest and another seventh grader, both latched onto the wrong part of the setup. Our coach likes to put his hand behind his opponents neck, and use that to pull him off balance to help get the leg. My two boys thought that was the most important, and spent five minutes trying to grab each others head. Once they did, they just danced around in a circle. I actually had to ask them if we were dancing or wrestling, mainly because that sounds like something a coach would say. I had to explain that this part didn't matter, and you needed to stay down. The key was to get the leg.

We then moved onto the important defensive move, the sprawl. Basically, when someone is trying to get your leg, you jump backwards with your feet, and put all of your weight on their back/head. Watch the video above for a good example of this. I picked up a few more kids at this time, and most of them got it. My oldest and his partner both wanted to wait until their opponent had their leg before they sprawled, I'm still working on getting them to do it early. After practicing each move, the coach would ask for volunteers to demonstrate what they had learned. My oldest volunteered, even though his partner didn't want to. My son shot the leg, and got it. His partner tried to sprawl, and kick his leg free. My son wouldn't let go, and ended up rolling the kid over onto his back. The coach laughed and told him that he had a super strong grip, which made him proud.

We then moved onto the finishing move for the sprawl. This is the famous half nelson. When you sprawl, you put a move called the whizzer on your opponent. This basically means that you put your arm over your opponent's shoulder, then move it under their armpit, then put your hand on the back of their head. Sounds complicated but it really isn't. You put your other hand on the back of their head, then grab that wrist with the arm that is in the whizzer. You then move your body away from their extended arm, and it rolls your opponent over onto their back for a point. I let the boys do this on me for practice, and my oldest could actually roll me. I was impressed.

The coach had everyone line up by height, and separate into groups of three. They then wrestled until someone had a take down. At that point, the winner would start wrestling the other person. Winner stands. My two boys where up against a ninth grader who has been wrestling. They got worked. My oldest held his own, he was stronger than the ninth grader, but that kid was fast and experienced. Finally he got my son's arm, and my son panicked. He stood straight up, and pulled to free his hand. When he let off pressure, the ninth grader threw him to the ground onto his shoulder, and it hurt. My son teared up, but recovered. After this game was over, they moved onto a game of knee tag. There was only two grouped together, and they just had to shoot the leg, and touch the knee, then the other person was it. This is meant to help them learn to sprawl and shoot a leg. This progressed to ankle tag, same game, you just had to touch the ankle.

We finished off with some ladder runs. As we went to the car, my son kept telling me his shoulders hurt, and he was exhausted. He actually said, "That was harder than I thought it'd be." I think he enjoyed it, and I think he'll be good at it. We'll see how tonight's practice goes.

New calling

2011-11-01T14:26:00.004-06:00

So the wife and I just received new callings at church. She is in charge of singing for the senior primary kids, and I'm teaching the 12 year-old kids in primary.

My oldest son is in my class, and we are finishing a year long study of the New Testament. We had the class read from the book of Acts, chapter 10. One of the boys in the class read verse 36, which states:

"The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)"

My oldest immediately followed the reading with, "Smiley face!"

Oh, what has texting done to our children?

My youngest daughter's Halloween costume

2011-10-18T08:16:00.006-06:00

So my youngest daughter had told me that she needed a Halloween costume this week. I'm sure I only half listened, but it turns out she needs it today. Of course, she chose to remind me of this last night at about 9:00 p.m.. So I put the kids in bed, and dashed off to the Walmart to see what I could find.

The caveat was that she really wanted to be a Ghostbuster.

I walked around for about 45 minutes trying to find matching clothes that could be turned into a Ghostbuster jumpsuit, but couldn't find anything. I called the wife and told her I wasn't having any luck, and she told to check in the misses exercise area for an extra small. I couldn't find that, but I did find a small green long-sleeve shirt and a matching pair of sweat pants. They were to become my canvas.

I took them home, and had to hand-draw the logo and name tag onto them, and thought I did okay. The left hand of the ghost is in the wrong position, but again, this is my first time drawing this, and I thought it was okay.

I realized that this was a very poor costume, although I thought my youngest daughter might think it was nice. I decided I had to do something else. So it was out to the garage. I found a 2'x2' sheet of 1/4" plywood. I also had some PVC fittings, so now it was time to make Ray's ecto-goggles. I didn't have some of the tools that I needed, but was able to use my tablesaw, bandsaw, and pin nailer to come up with this.

I got out the black spray paint and some elastic to complete them.

This morning when my youngest got up, she freaked out and loved it. I still think it isn't the greatest costume ever, but she is happy and that's what matters. Over the next week we'll work on the backpack. Here is the final photo.

Happy Halloween, two weeks early.

Fitness levels

2011-10-14T22:30:00.002-06:00

So today at the gym we did a "fitness level test.". We do these every six weeks. Our trainer has six levels of fitness. As long as you go you can typically meet the levels. The higher you get, the more difficult they become. The good news is that there are set exercises, but Jason customizes the times to the individual. I tested for the fourth level today. My only concern was reaching my individual goal of weight loss.

I was dreading it all week, because I was sitting about two pounds over my goal two days ago. I showed up early to take my measurements. When I stepped on the scale, I was a full pound below my goal weight. I'm now officially 53 pounds lighter than I was in January. I kept my goal at six pounds over the next six weeks. I'm going to try for ten. 63 pounds sounds much better than 53.

The test days are fun because of the comroderie. Everyone is pushing each other on and having a good time. Jason has some other trainers on staff (none of them run classes yet, he makes them come for six months to fully understand their expectations.) they do help on test days, so I got to see a few of them than I usually do.

I'm stoked that I passed, I completed my mile and a half run in my best time since high school. I have to run more, I still can't keep it up as long as I'd like, running that is.

Last night at soccer practice the three coaches who where there took on the six players we had show up. I have to say we won, but I let them take back a goal I scored from 25 yards out. The coaches might have played a bit dirty, or as I like to say using our experience. In all fairness, I only had to pick three players up off the ground. It was fun, and thanks to my weight loss I was able to play the entire time!

Jr. High 5K

2011-09-26T09:24:00.005-06:00

So my oldest son needed some extra credit. The only offered way to get it was to run a 5K. So Saturday morning, I found myself and my son at his Jr. High ready to run.

Now by saying I was ready to run, I meant I was up and dressed. I've been working out a lot, but I have not been doing much running. Occasionally we'll do a 3/4 mile run as part of a cardio day, but nothing more than that.

This was the Jr. High's first 5K, and they had about 50 people there, so not too shabby. We started at 7:30, and since it is now officially fall, the weather was perfect for a run.

We started the run, and I kept us at a moderate pace, not that I can get that speedy. My son wanted to run faster, and I told him he could, but he hung back with me. We ran about the first mile, then had to slow down and walk for a block. We then ran about another half mile, then began alternating running a block, walking a block. It was about this time that my son looked at me and said, "I'm glad we've kept this pace, I'm tired!"

For the most part, I let him dictate when we ran and when we walked. We hit a running block on one of the only uphill parts of the run, and he quickly decided that we would run to a fence a few houses up, then walk for a ways.

We finished in 38 minutes, which isn't great I know, but since we hadn't trained I felt pretty good about.

When I first started going to my gym, our trainer had us walk/run three miles on our own time, and record the time. That was back in March or April of this year. All I remember is that my wife kicked my but on that workout, and that my shins and lower back hurt so bad that I literally limped over the finish line. I also know that the track we walked wasn't exactly a quarter mile, so we didn't get in a full three miles. It took me one hour and five minutes to finish the three miles five months ago. So I'm looking at it like I improved 27 minutes on my time, with even a longer distance, without actually training. I'm happy.

Our gym was having a special train in the part on Saturday as well. I knew there would be some vendors there, and was interested in what was going on. We finished our race just in time to get to the workout, so I dragged my son along with me. I made him do half the workout, and then we got a recovery drink from Max Muscle. As we were driving home my son told me that he might like to go to the gym on Saturdays with us, because it was fun.

My son also had to a soccer game that afternoon. I believe that this is the most active he has ever been. It was great for him. On Sunday morning he crawled up the stairs, he really did. My oldest daughter was trying to help him stand up, but he insisted on crawling. He crawled in our room and told me his legs were too soar for him to go to church. That was when I got to have one of those moments with my child. It might be considered the male version of the, "Mom, I have an unclean feeling." Obviously the male versions are much less embarrassing, and only involve Icy Hot. I lathered his legs up, and he was surprised how quickly he could get up and walk around.

Anyway, no it's Monday morning, and I have moderately sore legs. I wonder if that is an omen for the rest of today? Hope not.

Super Ab H@$#!!!!

2011-09-16T08:37:00.003-06:00

Oh my, that is all I can say. I got up for a nice workout, and received Ab punishment instead!

I walked into the gym and started stretching, but didn't really pay attention to the board. We were all talking, meaning everyone was complaining about how tired they were. Then Jason stepped aside and giggled. It's never a good sign when your trainer giggles.

Here was the workout:
TRX Three Ab Combo—30-30-30 (reps)
Power Wheel Three Ab Combo—30-30-30
Three Ab Combo—50-50-20
Swiss Ball Combo—20-20-20
Swiss Ball Passovers—20
Bosu 4 Point—30
One Leg Plan—45 Seconds Per Side
Crunches—100
Bicycle Crunches—100
Exercise Band Jackknifes—30
Heavy Bag 4 Point—40
Medicine Ball Jackknifes—30
Band Side Lunge—20 Each Side
Dumbbell Side Plank—30 Each Side
Tire Sit & Slam—40

As of right now, my abs don't hurt. I can tell they will hurt, but I have officially reached the "numb" stage. Tomorrow I do not think I will be able to straighten my spine.

I've documented most of these exercises before, but there are a couple new ones, so here we go.

The Swiss Ball Combo (by the way, a Swiss Ball is just a big exercise ball that you can sit on) involves holding the exercise ball between your ankles and doing leg lifts. After that, you sit on the exercise ball, roll down onto your back, and then roll as far back as you can (basically you want the ball as close to your behind as possible while you can still support yourself.) You then do crunches. After completing those, you put your feet on the ball, with your hands in push-up position and do pikes. By the time I got to these, my pikes weren't stellar.

The Swiss Ball Passover involves the Swiss Ball (surprise!) You lay on your back, with your arms extended over your head, holding the Swiss Ball. You then jackknife your body upward, and pass the ball to your feet. You then return to laying down. Each time you pass the ball counts as one. The key to this exercise is to not bring your legs to far up, they should be just short of vertical. If you go too far, you pin your crunch down, so you don't get enough of a crunch.

I've discussed Bosu Four Points before, but I'll quickly revisit them. You place the platform on the ground, so the exercise ball portion is facing up. You position your lower back on the top of the Bosu. You then spread your arms and legs, and then crunch up. This is an amazing ab exercise. Love it!

Exercise Bank Jackknifes are pretty good, but I can't get the timing right yet. You lay down, and place a light weight exercise band under your feet. You then cross the bands, so the handles are on the opposite side of your body. You then bring do a jackknife, and bring your chest and legs up, while pulling the exercise band handles straight out to the side. I end up doing a situp, or leg lift, instead of a jackknife. The key to this exercise is similar to the Swiss Ball Passover, don't bring your legs up to high, or you can pin your crunch to the ground.

Heavy Bag Four Points are just like the Bosu, except laying on a heavy bag.

Medicine Ball Jackknifes are a newer exercise for us. Similar to other exercises, you lay on your back with your arms extended above your head. You hold a medicine ball in your hands, then bring your legs and chest up and touch the ball to your legs.

Band side lunges are like starting a lawnmower or snowmobile. You hook a heavy exercise band around a punching bag. You hold both of the handles together in both hands (grab them both in your right hand, then grab your right hand with your left hand.) You step straight to the side and twist your body while holding your arms straight out. It's almost like a row, but your focusing on the twist.

Dumbbell side planks involve getting in a side plank position up on your hand. You then take a light dumbbell (like a 15 pounder) and put it in front of you. You use your top hand, hold the dumbbell and extend your hand straight up. You have to focus on twisting your core as you go.

The tire sit & slam was pretty cool. We have a bunch of regular size tires at the gym. You put one against the wall, preferably a brick wall. You put your feet inside the tire against the wall. You lay outside the tire and hold a medicine ball. You then do a situp and throw the medicine ball against the wall and catch it at the top of the situp. It's a very "Rocky" kind of exercise, but it was good.

Well, as I rely on my chair back to support myself, I will think fondly of not doing this exercise routine again today. I wont say I will never do it again, or Jason will bring it back on Monday. Have a good weekend!

Wednesday morning

2011-09-13T08:58:00.008-06:00

So I've been feeling I'll an haven't hit the gym much in the past week. I started feeling better on Tuesday, and went to the gym in the morning. Then because my brain wasn't working, I went again in the evening with my wife. It was a pretty good workout, and now I'm pretty sore. Some of the highlights from yesterday were inclined dumbbell press, preacher curls, and triceps skull crushers.

Last night, I was laying in bed, getting my youngest to sleep, when my youngest daughter walked into my room. She had been asleep for awhile, and I asked her what was up. She just looked up at me, and started pulling her pants down. I said, "Whoa! This is my bedroom, not the bathroom! Get in there." So she just walked toward my bed and started pulling her pants down. I had to jump up, and walk her into the bathroom.

Then during the night, my youngest woke up. He's been sick, and his asthma has been acting up. When he woke up, he got the iPad, and then proceeded to watch children's shows. Since he is autistic, he just likes to watch the title sequence and the closing credits. Let me tell you, PeeWee's Playhouse and Looney Tunes are not your friends at 4:30 a.m.

Since I was up, I decided to go to the gym. (I would have got up and gone anyway, but I was sore from hitting the gym twice yesterday.)

We've been doing some new exercises this week. This is cool, because it shakes it up a little bit. Today was no different.

We started off by doing 40 "Rope Butt Touch Squats". This sounds pretty funny. We have four ropes hanging from the walls. You grab on, scoot backwards, and squat until your rear-end touches the ground. You then do your squats with a small jump at the top.

We then did a "dumbbell crawl" for two lengths of our floor. We took a 15 pound weight in each hand. Then got down in a plank position. You then do a bear crawl, almost like a moving mountain climber. The hard part is the floor is Sports Court indoor flooring, that means it is slick. We couldn't slide the dumbbells. This was pretty hard, and draining.

The third exercise was 20 "Push-up side steps". This involves doing a push-up, and when you are at the top you move your right hand over to your left hand, then move your left hand apart. While doing so, you move your feet behind your body. Then do a push-up, then move back to the right. This helps with your chest strength, but adding the movement on the back helps to work the back and shoulder muscles.

We then did 30 dumbbell walking lunges. Pretty standard.

Then my favorite, said in a sarcastic voice, 20 Burpee Bag Jumps. This involves doing a burpee (push-up, jump into a squat, then jump upwards.) Instead of jumping strait up, you jump over a heavy bag to the side of you. Then just repeat. This drains your energy.

We then did 40 "Bosu 4 Points". This involves laying the Bosu down on it's platform. You position your back on the ball portion where your body balances. You then extend your arms and legs, and bring them together in a crunch. This is a great ab exercise. The first time my father-in-law did these, he complained about his stomach for days.

Then we did something I haven't done since high school, "Fly's". In fact we did three sets of ten of "Swiss ball dumbbell fly's". Jason told us that after the dumbbells are above your shoulder, continuing the fly inward doesn't work anything. His solution is to have you rotate your hands, so your pinky's are together, and squeeze inward like you are trying to touch your elbows together. I could feel the extra work from the squeeze.

We then utilized the one machine we have in the gym, something which I have not used in the eight months I've been going there. We have a leg extension machine. Jason is worried that some of the muscles in your quadriceps do not get as much work from the strait squats and things we do. He wanted to make sure that all of the quads developed. The weight was "trainer's choice". When I asked how much he wanted me to do, his answer was, "The amount that lets you do 10-15 reps at one time." I ended up using 70 pounds, which I could get 15 reps at a time from. When I stood up from this, my legs kind of buckled!

We then did 100 mountain climbers with our feet in the TRX straps. I could only get 60 at a time.

We then did a new type of row, 40 reps of "band side lunge and rows". We hooked a heavy band around a punching bag. You stand with both of the handles together. You lunge to the side, and while in the lunge do a row. It kind of looks like starting a snowmobile. You alternate sides.

We then did 30 reps of dead lifts. We have these beams we use that are around 80 pounds. As an interesting aside, the last time we did this one of the ladies in the 6 a.m. class cried.

Now for the new, funky exercise. We did a one-minute "Medicine Ball Balance". This involved having two medicine balls. You put your hands on one, and your feet on the other and do a plank. I was actually able to do this, and so were a couple of the other guys. Most people found this pretty difficult because of the balance aspect. It's hard to balance on two balls like that. We had two minutes to try this, and if we couldn't complete it at that time, we moved on.

Now we moved on to kill our shoulders. We did 30-30-30 dumbbell circles. This involved just using five pound dumbbells. You stand in a T shape, and with your palms facing down, and your arms tight, move your hands in forward circles from the shoulders. We then turned our hands so the thumb were facing up and did 30 more circles, this time backwards. We then bent at the waist and turned our pinky's up, and did 30 more forward circles. It was tough, especially the last set.

Then to finish the core, we did 20 Power Wheel extensions. Grab the handles of the Power Wheel, get on your knees, and push forward from the hips. Once you have extended as far forward as you can, you pull back using your abs. And finally we did 35 leg lifts. If your legs go past vertical you start exercising your hips. So we get our legs vertical, and then give a little hop/crunch. This gives you a great ab workout.

Needless to say, I am tired. I think I'll spend the rest of the day being sore in my cubicle.

New project

2011-09-07T13:19:00.006-06:00

My wife came home the other day and told me that I was going to help build a table. Now I really like carpentry, but this took me by surprise.

It turns out that her mother wants a table for the kids to sit at when we have a meal at their house. She now has 14 grandchildren, and she wanted to be able to seat them all. She envisioned it being for her birthday, but wanted to get started on it. She had a picture of a table that she liked. It was an older shaker/farm table.

First step, I took some measurements and drew up some plans. I knew she wanted to be "cost effective", so I thought we could make it out of Douglas Fir. I priced this table out right around $100. The table is big at eight feet long, and just under four feet wide. To put this into perspective, many tables you see in stores are around four to five feet long, and 30 inches wide.

The mother-in-law liked it, but I think the father-in-law was more concerned with how he could store this massive table when it was not in use. He liked the idea of built-in seating, so I drew up a new plan that would be the same size, but a trestle table. The trestle table has legs in the middle, instead of at the edges. Since we are building in bench seating, the legs will be able to slide under the bench, and we can tuck the table into the corner. This table should be a little cheaper to build, but I like it as it has an Arts & Crafts feel to it, not that I don't like Shaker. I don't have the final drawing of this, but here is an early version. The final version has a split upright leg. The legs are very "chunky" at three inches square. This is going to be a heavy table.

Monday, my father-in-law wanted to do something fun, so we started working on the table. He kept asking me what he should be doing as I worked on the table. I would do the layout, and he would make the cuts for me. That's nice, not to mention the amount of sawdust I made, and it wasn't in my shop!

This photo is the accumulated sawdust from thickness planing the top. We took it down about a quarter inch. We started with 6/4 stock, and now have a 5/4 top. With the beefy legs, the thick top should look good. Plus, since this is a table for kids, they probably wont be able to move it too much.

My wife took some photos, I'll get them and upload them later. My father-in-law was surprised that I was using Mortise and Tenon joinery as he had never made this joint before. I figured if you are going for an Arts & Crafts look you should use the right joints. I am going to take some short cuts and use my pocket hole jig for the top glue up.

We got quite a bit done on Monday. We put the two leg assemblies together. I still have to cut four more mortises for the cross member on the bottom. Then I have to make the matching tenons on the cross brace. The good news is that I thickness planed the cross brace to the size of the mortises, so I just have to use a jig-saw to complete the tenon. These are through tenons, so you will be able to see the end-grain of the cross brace. I'm still debating if I will put a "knock-down" peg through the end, but as I like the look it will probably happen.

After that it is just gluing up the top, and attaching the two. I see a lot of sanding in my future, and they still haven't decided how they want the finish to look.

After seeing this table, my wife has told me I will be building another one in the near future.

Seen on the train

2011-09-02T14:48:00.002-06:00

So the camera on my phone is not the greatest, but pictured above is a student on their way to the U. He has a razor scooter and an Ewok in the side of his backpack. I'm going to guess computer science, engineering, or theatre major.

I was also privy to seeing three men on the train platform wearing guns, badges on their belts, and black t-shirts with "TSA Inspector" on the back. They were standing in a circle talking, not much inspecting going on. I wonder if they were there for Amtrack.

Pull-ups

2011-08-31T15:51:00.002-06:00

So my oldest has started Jr. High. He is liking it for the most part, except the 1 mile run they do every week in gym, which he needs to do more of so he can keep running in soccer. So I was asking him about it last night, and told me that they had to do pull-ups in PE. I remember vainly trying pull-ups, and failing.

Me: "How'd you do?"

Oldest Child: "I could do 5."

Me: "......WOW!"

I'm impressed.

"I'd tell you my opinion of football, but then I'd have to repent!"

2011-08-26T09:09:00.004-06:00

I heard that from another soccer coach last night. I'll get to that in a second.

Last night we had soccer practice, and a back to school night. We used the old divide and conquer technique. As a coach, I attended soccer, and the wife went to talk to teachers at the elementary.

The reports from the elementary are positive, with the exception of the amount of talking my younger daughter does. On the first day of school she told us that the teacher yelled at her. When I asked if she was talking, or not paying attention she said, "I was paying attention." You'll notice she didn't answer the other part of the question. The older daughter's teacher is great, and is working on helping the kids learn good habits and self esteem, and I don't mean the I'm just great no matter what I do, but she focuses on the positive. I think this will be great for my older daughter.

On to soccer practice. We have practiced for the last three years at the same location, and the same time. This year, it has become infested with football practices. I don't mind this, as our kids can see the calisthenics, yelling, and dull drills they do, and compare it to the games we play. All-in-all I think it helps them appreciate our practices.

Last night we showed up, and set up on the West end of the soccer field. We rarely use more than half. One coach was setting up cones, and getting the players warmed up while I put the net up. All of the sudden a team of 9-10 year old football players comes running through our field to do their lap to start practice. I asked them to get off of our field and got the following two responses. "Soccer sucks", and "You get off our field." Whatever, they are 9 year old punks (and not the good kind of punks like I used to be, the snot nosed kids type that you tell to get off your lawn [I know you usually don't see nested comments like this, but I felt like I should say that I have been asked to get off of people's lawns, so maybe all punks fall under the second type.]) Our players were very annoyed and started yelling back at the kids, until we told them to stop. We're trying to instill that soccer is a "gentleman's" sport.

It turns out that this football team was having a scrimmage against one of the other teams that practice at the park we are at. Like I mentioned we went from having one older team practice on the other field to having 5-6 teams there on Thursday nights. Since we were on the field first, they couldn't make us leave, and quite honestly they didn't even ask. They also had enough of the field that they could run their scrimmage North-South and have as long of a field as they would have running their game East-West with the full soccer field. They didn't do this. Instead, they ran it East-West, and had all of their coaches, and a few parents who were taking pictures stand in our field of play and yell at the kids. Then if a soccer ball came anywhere near them they would turn around and glare at us. The best part is that two of their coaches are friends of two of our coaches. This is about time that Coach Chuck told me the line above. Even better is the fact that all of his boys have played football at some point.

We finally started our scrimmage to end practice, and ran it North-South to be courteous. At this time, three of the dads from the football practices spread out on three sides of our field, and started playing catch over the tops of our heads. I was waiting for a player to get hit with the football, because they were obviously not quarterback material.

I would like my son to play football at some time. I think it helps teach teamwork and hard work. After the way they acted last night I might change my mind. Unfortunately, it also reinforced every stereotype of the stupid jock in my team's minds.

Now it wouldn't be a post if I didn't mention the gym. I didn't reach my weight loss goal the past six weeks, which included a family vacation and lots of family visiting. I did take my measurements though, and I've lost 3/4 of an inch in my waist, a full inch around my hips and chest. I'm pretty happy with that progress. Since January I've gone from a 54 inch chest to a 47 inch chest.

I was talking with my Father-in-law (FIL) about the workouts this week. When I could tell him what we did everyday he was confused for a minute, then the FIL asked, "You mean you're going every day?" I think that freaked him out.

Enjoy your weekend!

Oh my aching quads?

2011-08-23T13:03:00.004-06:00

Okay, I haven't posted for awhile. So here is whats been going on lately.

Yesterday was back to school, and my oldest started Jr. High. He seems pretty happy, and was excited that his locker is close to a girl he has a crush on. We had to go and get all those little back to school things, 3 ring binder, pad-lock for orchestra locker, 3x5 cards, etc.

The middle two (my daughters) are both loving their teachers. I think it will be a good school year.

We played a soccer game with the Priesthood from our Ward last Saturday. This was a good time. We had 15 people show up, including 3 Deacons. My team was slaughtered, but I did score a goal from midfield. The guy playing keeper for their team had never been a soccer player and was way out of position. I kept telling the young soccer players to take a shot, and no one would, so I did.

You may have noticed the post title, and thought, "That's not like Brett. He only ever complains about his back." I've decided I need to branch out, and now I'm going to complain about my legs.

For the past week the front of my quadriceps have been hurting. I've been working out, but they just don't seem to recover very quickly. The weird thing is where it hurts. Usually the outside, and down by my knee gets sore, but this was firmly in the upper-middle quad. Now I didn't loose any sleep thinking about this, but wondered why the change in the muscle pain. Then I went to the gym yesterday.

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are more "strength" days. That's not to say that all the other days aren't also, but we slow down a bit, and focus on good technique. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we focus on getting an elevated heart rate, and getting a good whole body workout.

We walked into the gym on Monday, and my wife looked at me and said, "Let's go home!" This is because the first three exercises contained the term, "mountain climber". Now a mountain climber is where you get in a push-up position, and then alter bringing your knees up to your chest like you're running. We usually do them with our hands on something to give a bit of elevation. This allows us to place our front foot down, which works your legs along with your abs. We had 100 Bosu mountain climbers (where you put the palms of your hands flat on the platform of the Bosu to add instability), 100 beam push-ups (our trainer, Jason Muir, has had some handles attached to six inch square metal tubing. We use this for push-ups, standing rows, and now mountain climbers.), and 100 medicine ball mountain climbers. As soon as I started on the workout, I realized that the mountain climbers were the cause of my sore quads. This was nice to know, but not really nice when you realize you have another 200 to do.

We then moved on to our "Hop-Touch-Reach" exercise. This is similar to a burpee, but without the push-up. We also usually throw in either a weight, or source of instability for the muscles in the arms and chest to get a better workout. Monday we did all of the above. We started with 40 hop-touch-reach with a six foot section of ABS drain line (similar to PVC pipe). This pipe is two inch diameter, and filled with sand. It is awkward to grab, and adds some instability up top. The real trick was putting it on the ground when you jumped backwards, then picking it back up for the hop on the end. We repeated this with medicine balls, and dumbbells.

We then moved into the core session. We started with a TRX 3 ab combo (I discussed most of these in a lovely post title, "Ab H#$@!"), followed by a Power Wheel 3 ab combo, and a Swiss ball 3 ab combo (this is the only set of exercises mentioned in my earlier post.) For the Swiss ball ab workout we first sat on the exercise ball, and rolled our rears forward until our back was touching the ball. You then roll backwards as far as you can and do crunches. The key is keeping the exercise ball still. By being back that far your abs have to be tense the entire time and they get a great workout. You then move to pikes with your arms in push-up position, and your knees on top of the ball. Then end with leg lifts with the ball between your feet.

The next set of exercises didn't really have a theme, besides elevating your heart rate. We started with a half-mile run, then flipped heavy punching bags four lengths of the gym, and jumped up on tractor tires 30 times. Then a new exercise was tried, the double-roundhouse belly. You get in front of a punching bag, and through a roundhouse kick with your left leg, then your right leg, and then do a push-up (making sure to touch your stomach to the ground.) I did have a slight advantage as I didn't have to go as far down as some people! This was followed by 40 band touch-reach (where you stand in the middle of an exercise band, with the handles in your hand, then you squat down and touch the ground, then reach up above your head as high as you can.) We then ran another half-mile.

To cap off the workout, we did a two and a half minute static squat. It was a good workout, and no wonder my legs hurt!

It's all about the arms

2011-08-16T13:06:00.002-06:00

Today we did something different for Firehouse Fitness, we focused on one muscle group to exhaustion. The idea behind the workout was not to burn a ton of calories, but to let your body burn extra calories over the next three days as it repairs your muscle tissue. We really focused on our arms, and through in some core exercises to burn a few more calories.

We started out with 5 sets of exercise band "3 arm combo". Each set involved standing on an exercise band and performing 20 bicep curls, 20 upright rows, and 20 triceps extensions. This makes your arms very tired.

We then did 100 crunches.

The next exercise was 4 sets of TRX band "3 arm combo". Each set involved doing 20 body bicep curls, 20 shoulder extensions (in this exercise you keep your arms strait in front of you, with the elbows locked and pull them strait out to the side. You end up standing in a "T" shape), and 20 triceps extensions. For those of you who don't know what the TRX system is, it looks like trucker tie-downs, but suspended from the wall. It utilizes your body weight to determine the difficulty of the workout. If you stand up strait it is very light weight, however, if you stand with your feet close to the wall the TRX is attached to it can be quite a heavy workout.

We then did 45 "Swiss ball pass overs". This involves laying on your back with your arms extended over your head. You place an exercise ball between your feet, and then do a jack knife and trade the ball from your feet to your hands. You then reverse it, and take the ball back to your feet.

We then did 3 sets of a dumbbell "3 arm combo". Each set was 15 "hammer fist" bicep curls (the palm of your hands face in instead of up), 20 shoulder presses, and then 15 overhead triceps extensions.

This was followed by 2 sets of a Power Wheel "3 ab combo". Each set involves 20 pikes (you have the wheel strapped to your feet, and get in push up position. You then do a jack knife movement, and bring your feet towards your head), 20 hamstring curls, and 20 leg lifts.

That is as far as I made it. There were two more circuits, but we ran out of time. I don't think anyone made it past this stage.

Great workout, but sore arms!

15 Years and Still Going Strong

2011-08-15T12:42:00.003-06:00

15 years ago (since yesterday, my wife monopolized the computer) I married the love of my life.

I remember the day, I had to be up early to finish setting up for the reception. Moving tables, taking care of problems with my tuxedo, even moving some railroad ties. Then we headed to the Temple, and waited in the Celestial room. The man who was performing the ceremony had switched our wedding and his haircut in his day planner. We sat in comfort while our families sat in a room designed for about 15 less people than were actually in there.

The day went great, and I've never regretted my decision to ask you to marry me.

I love you Melanie!

Shoes from the train

2011-06-24T08:32:00.002-06:00

Not sure where you pick these up, but everyone needs some Porky Pig high tops. The back even says, "That's all folks."

"New" Dutch Door

2011-06-10T15:56:00.003-06:00

Well I didn't get to the gym last night, but I had a lot to do. First, we had to pick up a new bed for our youngest. He slept on it about half the night, then came and jumped in bed with us. But half a night is better than the whole thing.

I also took his door off, and chopped it in half.

Now it might seem weird to cut a door in half, but I have transformed it into a dutch door, one that you can open the top or bottom independently (I always think of the library door at your local LDS meetinghouse.)

This way we can put him in his room if he is throwing a fit, and we can still keep an eye on him. The occupational therapist (OT) thinks this is a good idea. I'll post a completed picture later tonight. I still have to paint it.

Basically, I took his door, and cut it with my circular saw. Then I ripped a 2x4 down to create new blocking for the inside of the door, since it is a hollow core. I glued the new blocking inside the door. I then took a 2x6, and make a little shelf for the top of the lower half. Add a slide locking mechanism so the door will still move as one unit, and viola, a dutch door.

I also made a soccer ball rebounder (I know that's not a real word) for my oldest. He's been excited for soccer, and this will help him a lot. Basically it is four pieces of 2x10 that are made into a slab with some stretchers across the back. You then add two hinged legs, with a brace between them, on the back. You can adjust how the ball rebounds to you by varying the angle the wall sits at. If you lean it back, it pops the ball up into the air. If you have it sit perpendicular to the ground, it gives you a nice low pass. We'll see how that works.

That's enough for today. Tomorrow we are having a special class at the gym on toning your arms, followed by free "Green Smoothies". Love them. Come check it out, Saturdays are always free at Firehouse Fitness. 1410 South 600 West, Woods Cross, UT.

Long time no post

2011-06-09T14:55:00.002-06:00

Sorry it's been so long. I've been very busy, and very tired, so I've neglected the blog.

We had soccer tryouts a few weeks back. The team is looking really good. We have lost a couple of quality players, but we've also picked a few up. We'll also have the assistance of Coach Chuck, one of the kids dads. He played a lot, and the kids love him. I'm excited for the extra help.

Still going to the gym, and the weight-loss continues. This morning I decided to wear my suit pants, which I only normally wear to church. I haven't worn my suit for a little while, it's been hot, so only the shirt sleeves. As I walked to the train, I noticed that my pants would not stay up. This is very annoying at 7:10 in the morning when I'm still waking up. I got to work, and had to add an additional hole in my belt (as seen below.) Luckily I had my pocket knife to make said hole.

I was going to take a picture of my belt attached around my waist, but I didn't want to look like Anthony Wiener.

Now my pants are staying up, but I have a weird looking, out of place pleat on the front of my pants where I had to fold my pants so the front didn't stick straight out.

Yesterday, the wife did some weeding in the front planter boxes, and got some new flowers in. I'll post some pics later. Tonight we'll get the garden in.

Comparison

2011-05-23T16:05:00.001-06:00

So here is my latest comparison picture. The left side was taken in November of 2009 in Nashville. It was a very small photo in which I'm scowling because of the Elvis glasses. The right side pic was taken in my cubicle at work today. Quite a difference.

Down 40 Pounds

2011-05-19T13:31:00.003-06:00

Today I officially hit an undisclosed weight that is 40 pounds lighter than I was in January. I'm very happy about this, and I feel good (I'm sure I'll feel that much better after I loose another 40.)

Every six weeks our gym tests our fitness level. The trainer wants to make sure that we are progressing enough. The tests have never been really hard, so no big deal. The only thing I know about this next test is that I'll have to run 1.5 miles. I can do that, I couldn't have 2 months ago.

As part of the wife's new diet, she is drinking the concoction in the picture below:

I'm also drinking it now, because it is surprisingly good. I had someone in my office tell me about green smoothies before. He said that he and his wife are basically vegetarians during the week, and eat meat on the weekends. They do this for a couple of reasons, but when I asked about his protein to carb intake he shrugged and said you have to have the green smoothie.

Now the green smoothie is lots of things. In fact, years ago I worked with an older lady from Germany. She would always bring in her "green drink". I finally asked her what was in it, and she said, "whatever I have in my refrigerator." I thought this sounded disgusting, and quietly mocked her about it. Now I am turning into the guy that brings the weird green drink to work.

Here is the recipe for the above smoothie:

2 Cups of fresh spinach

1/4 - 1/2 Cup Milk (I used 1%, but the recipe actually called for rice milk.)

1 Tbsp Peanut Butter (I kind of guessed on the amount because I didn't want to wash a measuring spoon.)

1 Whole Banana

2 Scoops of Protein Powder (I used chocolate, but vanilla would taste equally good.)

You just put it all in a blender, and puree. It tastes very good, mainly like banana and peanut butter (Elvis would have liked it.) This makes enough for two people if you use really big glasses. I would say that I had about 16 ounces for mine. I used an online recipe nutrition calculator, and came up with the following numbers. About 240 calories, 23 grams of carbs, 33 grams of protein. Pretty good for one meal.

Apology for not posting, and the wife's new diet

2011-05-18T13:27:00.004-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted much this week. It's not that there is nothing to write about, it's that there is so much going on, especially with a new puppy in the house.

Until yesterday, our dog only had eyes for me. I didn't think anything of this, as I would be the "alpha male" in our household. (Note I said alpha male, and not head of household, or anything else. I know my place.) I have also had many dogs, and for some reason small animals and small children seem to like me.

The big problem with this is that she has separation anxiety, and I was the only one who could calm her down. Even when everyone else was home, she would watch out the window for me, and when I came in would bound up to me, and freak out until I sat down and properly greeted her (read freaked out about her.) Turns out this is exactly the opposite of what I should have done. So now I ignore the extreme behavior and calmly greet her. She has also started to relax around the other family members, especially my wife and oldest daughter.

We have a cage/kennel for the dog, but she hasn't used it since we have had her. I'm going to be working on this with her to see if her own private space helps her out.

Now on to the new diet. As part of our gym membership, I'm helping with the website and social media. This, in turn, results in not paying so much for the gym. I think it's a win-win. This month our trainer came out with a new diet. This is kind of an add-on to the boot camp training we go through, so I wont tell you everything, in fact I'm going to oversimplify it here. Basically it is a raw carbohydrate diet. You need to eat a protein and carbohydrate at each meal, but the carbs should come from an uncooked vegetable or fruit. He also has some other things thrown in like a green smoothie that is really good. My wife started this diet this week (I've been doing something very similar for about a month and a half, but will be moving to this new diet soon.) The wife's biggest problem with this? No caffeinated drinks. Now as we are LDS she only had caffeinated soda. This brings up the old joke:

Q: How do you tell the LDS members from non-members in Utah?

A: The temperature of their caffeine.

My wife has been getting serious headaches because of the lack of caffeine in her diet. The trainer has given her special permission, on one day a week, to have up to 32 ounces of a diet drink, as long as she has drank 60 ounces of water by noon. Drinking water is a big test for my wife. Ever since she was pregnant with our second child (I think it was #2 honey, so don't be angry if I got that wrong) she has had a hard time drinking water. This is due to the fact that when she started getting morning sickness, she would wake up, drink a glass of water, then be sick. That association has not left her mind. She is doing well, and has accelerated her weight-loss with the new diet. I'm proud of you honey!

A Tale of Two Games

2011-05-18T13:18:00.002-06:00

It was the best of games, it was the worst of games, it was the game of hustle, it was the game of slothfulness, it was the game of hope, it was the game of despair.

Please allow me a little poetic license as I paraphrase Dickens, but we had two soccer games this past weekend, and they could not have been more different.

Friday night we played the best team in the league. Our team was ready. We went out and won every loose ball, played the long ball up to space (not just booming it over the top, but where our strikers could reach it), and dominated. We scored the first couple of goals. It was fabulous and a joy to watch. We ended up loosing, but it was close, and this was the best game we had ever played.

Saturday we played one of the worst teams in the league. We went out and didn't show a lot of hustle. We didn't win any loose balls, in fact we pulled up on our 50/50 challenges and just let them take the ball. They were big kids, and I think that psyched our team out. We lost this game, and it wasn't even fun to watch.

Well, there was one point where one of our teams players was in line to see that off sides wasn't called. The person who was the center referee was supposed to be an assistant, but the center referee didn't show up on time. This parent, who is way more knowledgeable about soccer than any of our coaching staff, yelled out to ask why it wasn't off side. The ref, who was a teenage girl wearing "John Stockton" style shorts, just turned and started screaming at the top of her lungs that the linesman should call off sides. He replied that he was inline, and that the assistant was out of position and didn't make the call. Then the ref screamed, "SHUT UP!!!!! LET ME REFEREE!!!!!" That was kind of funny.

All in all, the kids are doing much better. We have one final regular season game, and then a tournament in a week. We'll see how they go.

Our new family member

2011-05-13T10:43:00.004-06:00

So this is Cocoa, the newest addition to our family. Cocoa is a lab mix, and not very big (around 30 pounds right now.) She is 6 months old, and loves to snuggle. She come house and crate trained (a huge bonus.)

We got Cocoa from my wife's high school friend. We got her for a few reasons. One is that our daughters have been begging for a dog, the other was to see if an animal companion would help our autistic son.

Our kids didn't know we were getting a dog, in fact my wife had the older kids baby sit while she came to pick me up from the train station. While she was out, we went and got the dog. Upon arriving home, we found our youngest crying, and the girls playing in the yard. The girls got excited and ran to see the dog, while the youngest just kept crying. The dog was interested in the youngest, which seems typical, and gave him one lick, then walked off. This helped calm our son down, and was the best thing the dog could have done. If she had acted all hyper and jumped around, he never would have paid attention to her again. The oldest had a friend over, and I think all he said was, "cool". This was mainly to stress how cool and collected he was. He wouldn't get over excited over anything with a friend around.

After we got everyone inside, the dog started exploring. Now the youngest is slow coming up the stairs, mainly because he likes to play on them (that should really say try to stand on his head on them, but that sounds dangerous so we'll leave it at play.) The dog walked down the stairs towards the youngest, and again just gave him one lick. The youngest just looked at her for a second, then put his hand on her head and walked up. This is a huge success, as he has really only ever interacted with bigger dogs, and Cocoa is much smaller than I expected.

The youngest went into his room, and the dog continued to explore. Eventually she found the youngest's room, and he was laying on the floor. The dog just went in and watched him, while he watched her. Again, looking at animals is not something the youngest always does, so this is good.

We took the dog out to visit, as our way of announcing that we have a new pooch. We saw my folks, and my wife's folks, then came home. We got everyone inside, and when the dog and the youngest reached the top of the stairs, the youngest just grabbed the dog's tail and followed her around. Major triumph. Cocoa handled it great, she just looked at him for a second and then went about her business.

The oldest finally showed some enthusiasm after his friend went home. The girls had been fighting over who got to walk the dog. He finally asked if he could have a turn as we were going into our house the last time at night.

I woke up this morning, and got out of bed. The dog jumped up and greeted me with a big tail wag. You gotta love the unbridled joy a dog can communicate with it's rear end. The dog then dashed out of the room, and jumped on my youngest daughter's bed. He gave her a big lick, and she thought this was the greatest way to wake up ever.

The girls even fought over who got to take the dog out to go potty this morning. We'll see if that keeps up.

This means a few more weekend projects, like dog proofing the backyard again, but I love it.

Cold

2011-05-12T11:53:00.000-06:00

So you might wonder why I have a roll of toilet paper and an orange sitting on a shelf in my cubicle. I'll tell you. It's because I have a cold, and didn't have a box of tissue at home to bring in to work. And, since I have a cold, I figured that oranges were a good thing to bring with me for the vitamin C. (Actually, I bring oranges to work pretty much every day. They are a pretty good carbohydrate, and lower on the glycemic index than many fruits.)

Anyway, yesterday we had soccer practice. The oldest didn't really seem into being there, although it was the best team practice we have had in a long time. Later he told me that he didn't think he would play soccer again next year. I was initially happy, as that frees up a lot of time on my schedule, but then I became a bit melancholy about it. I enjoy the time I spend with my son at practice. He has improved tremendously this year. The team has improved tremendously this year, and it is fun to watch the style of soccer they are now playing. The wife wants to have a chat with him to make sure he realizes any implications this may have.

Our schedules have been crazy, here is an example from yesterday:

3:30 - youngest daughter's piano lesson
4:00 - oldest daughter activity days at church
5:00 - pick up oldest daughter
5:00 - the oldest's soccer practice
5:15 - oldest daughter's piano lesson
6:30 - get the oldest from soccer
7:00 - the oldest's scouts night

I was going to try to fit the gym in, but I was so stuffy, and started getting a fever. I figured the other people at the gym would appreciate it if I wasn't there. I spent the evening after soccer, laying in bed watching Mythbusters, and occasionally my wife's stories.

Tuesday Night

2011-05-11T09:37:00.003-06:00

So Monday night, for family home evening (fhe) we discussed values. We told the kids that we were going to focus on increasing respect in our household. Respect for each other, respect for the rules, and respect for the things we own. This was a lovely discussion, and the kids agreed that respect is important.

Fast forward to Tuesday. Any feelings of goodwill and respect are gone. Everyone is mad at everyone else, people are plugging their ears when others speak. There is yelling and name calling. Rules are being disobeyed. It was a pretty sever turnabout from Monday. It looks like our work is cut out for us.

We did get to break away and get to the gym last night. The wife wasn’t feeling 100%, but decided to try it anyway. After a few exercises she had to go lay down as she was feeling dizzy. I made it through, but found a new exercise that is weird.

In all fairness, this isn’t a new exercise, just new to me. My brother-in-law described it to me, and told me how much it sucked. I agree. It is called “Turkish Training”, or “Turkish Get Up.” Below is a picture. You start on your back, with a dumbbell in one hand, extended toward the ceiling. You then have to get up to your feet without using your other hand, or letting the dumbbell drop below head height. You then reverse the process for a single repetition. We did ten reps per arm, and I had to drop the weight I was using a couple of times. They were hard, but interesting.

Tuesdays are strength days. We focused mainly on lower body, but threw in a couple of chest exercises as well. The most interesting chest exercise was “Three Ball Push-ups.” You put both hands on medicine balls, and get in push-up position. You then put both of your feet on the third medicine ball and do push-ups. Getting on the balls is interesting. It’s important to have your butt down, if you try to put your feet on a medicine ball in a jack knife position it is a recipe to roll off to the side. We don’t do these to get extra-deep push-ups, but in order to cope with the instability. These are hard, but I like them.

The third exercise I’ll mention is “Bag Slams.” These are simple. We have a number of heavy punching bags in the gym. They are not suspended, but laying on the floor. The idea is that you pick one of these up onto your shoulder, then slam it down on one of the tractor tires in the gym. These movements reflect picking up a big bag, like rock salt, and putting it on your shoulder. The slam is like using a sledge hammer. Both pretty useful motions to master. Yesterday we changed our technique a little bit. In the past we would pick the bag up by setting it on its end, bear hugging it, then sliding it onto your shoulder. The new technique has you squat in front of the bag, with the end in your lap. You then reach out and grab the bag, and use leverage to torque it up onto your shoulder. I kept thinking that this didn’t feel like something I would do ever, until I got home, and our youngest had fallen asleep on our bed. I used this exact technique to get him out of our bed, and into his. The wife commented that obviously the gym was working, because I just used the technique we learned tonight.

As of this morning, I’m officially down 38 pounds.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-09T12:20:00.003-06:00

I know I'm a little late, but Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful, talented wife.

Also, Happy Mother's Day to all the women who have helped me through my life!

Lunch of champions

2011-05-09T11:47:00.001-06:00

We had a cookout yesterday for Mother's Day, in the rain. I got to take the extra steak with me for lunch today. Hooray for steak.

The salad underneath is a custom blend from all of the vegetables we have lying around. It has Romain lettuce, Iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, jicama, daikon, almonds, and carrots. It is really good.

This weekend, we had a barbecue with our trainer. My kids had so much fun, they keep asking when we can go and hangout again.

The oldest had a soccer game on Friday. They lost, but mainly because we didn't have a readily available back up goalie. Our goalie is really good, but he only wants to play one half. We were tied at 0 at the half, but when we put the goalie back in the second half, he was kind of playing half-hearted at first. This let in three quick goals. We made a change to a different keeper, who we all had concerns about, and he really didn't get tested.

My oldest plaid great. He was running like a mad-man, he even had a really pretty full volley shot on goal. His mother captured the before and after on film. It's not something he's ever practiced, but it felt right, and he pulled the trigger.

Going to sign off, and stare out the window at the fall weather we're receiving again. Have a good week!

Cinco de Mayo

2011-05-05T12:38:00.003-06:00

My lunch. I feel that it is very much like Cinco de Mayo. Something like it came from Mexico, and the USA just took it, tweaked it, and made it there own. It might not be so exciting to our neighbors to the South, but that's okay.

From what I understand, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of a military victory over the French. I guess that's why it's not so celebrated in Mexico. It's kind of like being in High School and celebrating beating up a sixth grader. I mean, who really wants to celebrate that? Even the French have defeated the French. For my favorite synopsis of France's military, read here.

Now on to other stuff. My oldest had his final orchestra performance last night. They sounded really quite good. The only bad part was sitting in a High School gym with no air conditioning, and trying to keep the other kids calm.

Due to the concert, I hit the gym in the morning. My only problem with this is making the train on time. Usually it takes me about 50-55 minutes to finish my workout, but if I wanted to get home, showered, and to the train without being late, I had 45 minutes. I told our trainer that up front, and he was nice enough to remind me. I completed everything except the final ab workout. I made it half way through that. I was happy with that result.

I now have two areas on my body that are sore. The first is my back. Two days ago we did a lot of rows, and my back muscles feel it today. We varied the rows between a lot of exercises, including the "push up, row, row". This exercise is just kind of awkward. You do a push up with a dumbbell in between your hands, or you do your push ups with a dumbbell in each hand. When your arms are extended, you perform a row to your waist. I decided to have a dumbbell in each hand, as I would get a little lower on my push ups. The only problem was the dumbbells kept sliding out from under me on the floor.

The other part of me that is sore is my rear end. We did some good leg workouts yesterday, including a jog, squats, touch and reaches, and walking lunges. The exercise that really seemed to get me though was "bag hops". We had a heavy punching bag flat on the ground. You stood over it, with a foot to each side, and then put one foot on top. You then just jumped and moved the foot on top of the bag down to the ground, and the other foot on top of the bag. We use this for a soccer warm up quite often, only with a soccer ball. I started feeling it last night, but this morning as I walked to the train I couldn't help whimper a bit.

The weather is nice, so I'm going to head outside for a bit. Have a good day!

A quote from the oldest

2011-05-04T12:30:00.003-06:00

My oldest had ripped one of his shoes, and my mother upon seeing it declared she was going to buy him some new shoes.

She called my wife, and my son had some friends over. He really didn't want to go, and kept saying that, but my mom was resolute. My wife told him that Grandma had made up her mind, and it would be easier for him if he just went along.

After he got back, the oldest told my wife, "I wanted to tell Grandma that I've never seen her so bossy!"

Ha ha, now he's going to be in trouble with Grandma!

Weekend review

2011-05-02T12:18:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I didn't write anything this weekend, but it was pretty happening.

Friday night, the oldest's soccer team played a game in the snow. This isn't unusual for the end of the Fall season, but is for the middle of spring. The other team only fielded nine players, and we took advantage. One of the other coaches and myself had to keep telling the kids we weren't going to run up the score as it was unsportsmanlike. The kids argument was that the game is about scoring, so we should do as much as we could.

We made some weird line up changes, and the end result was 7 - 0. Our team was elated. There was one casualty on the field, for the other team. Their star player was bringing the ball down field, and lost his shoe. He kept playing, and when he finally made his move toward the box, our defender got the ball from him. I'm pretty sure he went through his foot to get it. Due to the weather, and the fact that this kid ran around for a minute in the snow with no shoe, he limped the rest of the game.

Saturday morning, I volunteered with our produce co-op, bountiful baskets. We set up the distribution point, got everyone assigned to different jobs, then the truck was an hour late. It was interesting, I helped with everything from unloading the truck, to distributing the food, and clean up. Kind of a fun experience.

We then had our Saturday soccer game. Because of their success the night before, the oldest's team was a bit cocky, and forgot how to play positions. The other team was pretty disciplined in their positions, and also much larger than we were. This put us down by a goal in the first half.

The second half started, and we fell apart. The other team scored six more goals in that half. The bright moment for me, was the last time my oldest was subbed in. He had been hearing the coaches get on everyone's case about "winning the ball." That's code for, "get off your lazy duff, and run!" The oldest went out, and was winning every ball that came near him. If he didn't win it, he was in on solid tackles. In fact, the biggest kid on the other team, who was probably six inches taller than my son, had the ball. He was bringing it up field, and my son went out to challenge. When the other kid pushed the ball to far forward, my son charged in. He had his shoulders down, and ran right through the other kid. My wife was laughing because he sent the other kid back about three feet, and onto his butt. My son didn't even bounce backwards a little. Of course this resulted in a free kick for the other team, but the consensus was the effort was great.

Saturday night we went to a sister-in-law's house for UFC fight night. My father-in-law, the pizza master, cooked dinner, and we watched the fights. They didn't seem as exciting as the last few times.

Sunday was church, and visiting day. Pretty mellow.

All-in-all a good weekend.

Old Christmas gift

2011-04-29T08:53:00.005-06:00

So a friend of mine from work stopped by my cubicle with an old present the two of us had received. He is moving offices, and told me it was my turn to have it. He wants it back in a year.

This is it.

Now you might be wondering what it is, truth be known, so am I. I believe it is a fox. It is made out of some sort of dead plant. It blasts dust and who knows what into the air if you so much as look at it. That being said, I like it because of it's story. So step into the "Way Back" machine, and set it for October 2007.

I had to go to a conference in Breckenridge, CO with four other coworkers. I coordinated my travel with my friend. We found out a few days before leaving that the first big storm of the year was scheduled to hit on our travel day. Many people from Utah were just driving out, because it isn't that far.

After getting through security, and getting to our terminal, we noticed a few familiar faces. Two ladies, the higher ed sales group for a local credit union, came over to talk with us. They were supposed to drive out, but their boss had heard about the storm coming in, and booked them flights and a rental car instead. They were worried about getting from Denver to Breckenridge, which is about an hour away. They asked if they could follow us. We didn't think much of it, and told them okay.

Anyway, we get to Denver, and the credit union people are really embarrassing. My friend suggests we go and get our rental car, while the credit union people waited for their baggage. After leaving the airport he tells me that none of the rental car places are together, and that there is no way we will see them again until the conference. We have a laugh, and proceed through tons of snow, and horrible driving conditions to get to the conference.

Throughout the entire conference, these two ladies called us names, threw things at us, etc. It was all in good fun.

Well one day the following spring my coworker and I had to visit a college in the area of the credit union corporate office. We decided to take a peace offering. We put together a bag of company swag, and stopped by the dollar store to get a few extra supplies.

We went into the main lobby, which also is an active branch. We asked for the two ladies. After a few minutes waiting, one of them appeared. We talked for a few minutes, gave her the bags, and then gave her the final present. We each pulled out two cans of silly string, and sprayed her down in front of their customers and her coworkers. In fact, her laughing and screaming brought out more coworkers who laughed and went back into their offices. She asked one of the guys why he didn't step in to defend her, his response was that, "they're bigger than me."

Being good sports, we helped her clean up the mess. Everyone had a good laugh, and I ended up with some weird plant fox.

"Dodge 'em" cars

2011-04-28T12:12:00.004-06:00

So I just read this article and had to laugh.

Basically a British Theme park has banned using the bumper cars to bump each other. You see, the real excitement comes from dodging the other cars!

Wow that sounds almost as exciting as dodging other pedestrians while walking!

Bad picture, tough workout

2011-04-27T20:55:00.003-06:00

Okay, the picture sucks, and so did the workout.

We showed up at the gym, and I glances at the workout board. At first I thought it was empty, but it was just a very simple workout. The board reads - Cycle 1 250 roundhouse kicks per leg, Cycle 2 1,000 mountain climbers, Cycle 3 1,000 jump ropes.

I started out strong with the kicks. My left leg was a little tired.

Mountain climbers are one of my least favorite exercises, especially when I have to do 1,000. To do a mountain climber you put your hands on a medicine ball on the floor. You get in pushup position with one leg bent forward, then you jump and change leg positions. I would bust out 100 really quick then rest and go again. The wife would just go slow and steady. We finished about the same time.

We then moved to the jump ropes. I can only bust out around 100 at a time. We got to the gym a little late, so I only finished 777, but I still felt retched, I mean good about that.

It's amazing what three simple exercises can do.

Monday Soccer Review

2011-04-27T12:49:00.002-06:00

So we drove to Orem for a soccer match on Monday. The oldest's team is really playing good soccer. This was a make up game from earlier this month.

So we made it to the game on time, despite the weather. We warmed up, and started the game. The team we were playing scored on us in the first two minutes. They were great. Our biggest problem was the other team chipping our keeper. He was to short to get the really high balls, and they were really good at picking out the upper corners.

We had five goals against us in the first half. We created some good opportunities, but couldn't get a clean shot on goal.

Starting the second half, we switched keepers. We really settled back in defense, and attempted to ride it out. (Just so you know, that wasn't the coaches strategy, but the kids naturally did it.)

My oldest son kept getting mad at the other team for little things. When the ball went out of bounds, they would all signal their way, trying to influence the ref. My son said, "Who do they think they are? They aren't reffing this match." I had to explain to him that this is quite normal in soccer. You act as if it is yours, and play that way, hoping that the ref will not whistle again, and give it to the other team.

We escaped the second half with only three more goals against us. Now this may seem horrible, 8-0. I thought it was pretty good. In looking over our competitions stats, they had already played one team we had faced. We beat the team 3-2, and had the most shots on goal in a game I have ever seen. They beat the same team 17-0. Needless to say, they need to move up a division. I overheard one of their team comment that they had only one goal scored against them this entire season.

The kids were bummed, but I was pretty happy with the result. Next stop, practice. Hopefully we will have a rain-free practice for a change.

Time to invest

2011-04-23T12:20:00.003-06:00

So part of being sick, was having an upset stomach. Due to that, I really couldn't eat anything. This, in turn made my stomach more upset and led to a proclivity to waft air biscuits, as we said in Jr. High. (That's supposed to be a polite way of saying I was passing a lot of gas.)

I did feel sick, which I'm sure contributed to the odor, which was exceptional, in a very male punishing their friends kind of way.

Now you are all probably wondering why I would write an entire post on gas. It was to share this story from 2:30 this morning.

I woke myself up with a loud toot, and tried to go back to sleep. The wife rolled over and said, "Brett, you are going to kill me!". She then rolled back over facing away from me and fell back asleep. When I asked her about it this morning she denied having any recollection.

I'm thinking for Father's Day I'm going to end up with a Better Marriage Blanket and a bunch of vitamin C pills.

Flu

2011-04-22T19:03:00.002-06:00

So last night the younger daughter was sick in the van. Then the oldest was sick at about 1 a.m. Now it's my turn. I stayed home today with a fever and an upset stomach. I haven't thrown up, but I've felt like it. Here's hoping the wife, oldest daughter, and the baby don't get it.

Beefy and the Manly Principles

2011-04-21T12:56:00.007-06:00

I'm not sure this is the word that most people want to be described as. Yet last night was the second time I've been called that, and it was meant as a compliment.

We went to the gym last night, and my gluteus maximus (aka butt cheek) was sore. It kind of felt like I had a charlie horse in it. We were doing lunges and really focusing on our glutes.

After the first round of exercises, I told our trainer, and he told me some things I could do to stretch it out. He then offered to help work the knot out after class, if I was comfortable with that. I agreed, for some reason.

Now I have to tell you that this isn't the first time Jason has laid his hands on me. When we started going, I was experiencing bursitis in my shoulder. He wanted to show me how hyper-tense muscles around the shoulder were pulling it out of whack. He massaged up under my shoulder blade, and it hurt a little. He then said that the worst place on most men was their pecs. He had me raise my arm strait out, so the outer edge of the pectoral was exposed. He then grabbed that muscle. This might seem an odd statement, but raise your arm strait to the side, shoulder level. Now put your fingers in your armpit, and your thumb on the top of your pectoral muscle. Now squeeze.

I have to again describe Jason to let you know how much pain this caused. Jason is about my height. Weighs almost 300 pounds, but it is all muscle. He's been doing strongman competitions, and has an iron grip.

Now being male, there is a certain code I live by. I had to apply the "Don't show pain" principle at this moment. He was talking about how tight the muscle was, and what that means to the shoulder alignment. I was probably turning blue, as I couldn't show any pain, and the best way to do that in this situation was not to breath. I mean, without breath, I can't make any sounds, right?

Jason worked on my pectoral for a few minutes, then laughed and said, "I'm not letting go until you show how this really feels."

In response, I invoked another manly principle, the "When in doubt, call someone a bad name" section. This resulted in him letting go, so mission accomplished.

This was the first time I heard the word "beefy" as a compliment, except to certain livestock. Jason said, "You are so beefy!" Like I said, he does strongman competitions, and that's a crowd I'm not familiar with. I like to I think they would find it a nice thing to say.

Back to last night. We finished our workout, and were stretching. Jason told me to lie down on my stomach. (We had three new people in class, who were all confused. After watching for a moment, I think they were all dreading this happening to them.) He stood over me, and started feeling for knots in my lower back, and hamstring. Then I felt a lot of pressure on my right cheek, and to put it bluntly, it hurt. It turns out that he was kneeling on it, as applying direct pressure will help remove the knots.

At this point I invoked the same principle as above, no pain. I did think some bad words though, in case I was required to invoke the second principle of calling someone a name.

After kneeling on my butt for about five minutes a cheek, he looked over to my wife and told her, "He has a beefy butt."

Is this a compliment?

He then moved his knee down onto my hamstrings, they have been tight, so this helped them relax. Thinking he was done as he stood up, I was very surprised when he grabbed my calves. This led me to skip the first principle of manhood quoted above, and move directly into the second.

The past two weeks we have been jumping rope, and doing calf raises. I have big calves anyway, and they are the one part of my body that gets really tense. I don't know that this would help them relax, because I made him stop at this point.

On a total tangent, the last time someone rubbed my calved (the wife), I made a comment about how toned they were getting. Not thinking about the fact that the wife had told me a few days before that she wasn't seeing any improvement in her calves (which is a lie.) This resulted in my sore calves receiving a solid punch, and being called "show off".

I guess I do prefer "beefy" over "show off".

Replace brakes, fridge breaks, no gym break, oh my!

2011-04-20T11:04:00.005-06:00

So our minivans brakes have been sounding pretty loud lately. I haven't had much time to look at them. Yesterday, when I got home, the wife told me that they were horrible, and we needed to cancel all plans and look at them.

I took off the driver side tire, and surprise, there was no pad left. The outside of the driver side rotor has to be turned, and possibly needs to be replaced. The wear isn't even, which could mean that the caliper needs replacing also. Not having time to commit to that, I just replaced the pads last night. The other stuff will have to wait until the weekend.

Knowing that I had free lifetime brake pad replacement, I borrowed a car from my folks, and drove up to Autozone to get the new brake pads. It took the guy helping me about 20 minutes to figure out which items should be replaced. They didn't have them in stock. He looked for me, and the closest store with them in stock was Kaysville. So our journey continued.

When we got to Kaysville, I explained the situation, and helped the clerk navigate their "Warranty System" to find my brakes. Due to the extremely poor condition of the pads, the clerk had to get a manager's approval to process the return. The manager reminded me of this guy:

I have to say the kid was really nice, and very helpful. It was weird to see the older guy being deferential to him, and the black rubber bands on his braces didn't help the situation. It turns out the "warranty" I had were for an old part they don't carry anymore. The price has gone up, but the manager refunded the old part, and discounted the new brakes, so I wasn't out any money. Very happy!

When we got home, the wife made my oldest son come out to "help" me install the new brake pads. I talked him through the process, and let him install the driver's side pads. He thought it was pretty cool, and kept telling me how complicated cars are.

The reason we had to get the brakes fixed, besides stopping the car, was that our refrigerator isn't staying cold. The freezer of our frost free fridge has been frosting up. This might not seem to have anything to do with car brakes, but stay with me for a minute. Now I have to have a flashback.

Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo (picture Wayne and Garth waving their hands down by their faces, and the picture becoming wavy for a minute.)

The wife: "Honey, why is there water dripping down in the fridge?"

Me: "No idea, put a bowl under it to catch it."

Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo (back to the present.)

That was my idea of fixing the fridge. In doing some research on refrigerators, I found that my problem is probably related to one of two items. First, it could be that there is a problem with the defrost cycles. This could be bad, it might require an actual repairman. Second, it could do with the fact that the cold air from the freezer is not circulating down into the fridge. Since I can now see ice stalactites hanging down from the vents at the back of the fridge, I'm betting on the second. I also found the reason for the water dripping, ice stalactite developing problem in our fridge. It seems that the condenser hose at the back of the fridge is plugged. I guess this is pretty common. Since the moisture cant vent out, it is building up inside. I'm hoping that by clearing out that hose, and letting the fridge thaw for a few days our problems will be fixed.

The big problem is what to do with all of our perishable food for the next few days? My mother has a "spare" fridge in her basement. It's pretty small, but would hold our food for a few days. She demanded that we borrow it, so I had to get to her house to move a fridge (see there is a tie in.)

We successfully relocated the fridge into our kitchen, just in time for me to get the kids to bed. This sounds simple, but anyone who has children, or was a child knows this is not true. After dealing with about 30 minutes of child wrangling, everyone was in bed and being quiet. I consider this success.

This leads me to the next adventure of the night, my new job as church bouncer. Our Elder's quorum is responsible for building security this month. Unfortunately we didn't get cool black t-shirts with the word "SECURITY" on back. Basically, two members of our quorum go over every night, and make sure all the doors and windows are shut and locked, and that everyone is out of the building. Last night was my turn.

I used to think it was really spooky walking around a dark church at night, but it wasn't too bad, I did have backup. We had to kick some guys out who were playing basketball, and one lady who was updating a bulletin board. Although we were very polite, and let them finish their activities first.

Between all of this excitement, I didn't get a chance to go to the gym, but since I was so active I don't feel bad. This morning I officially hit 30 pounds lost. I still have a lot more to go, but I'm getting there.

UPDATE: I just reread this post, and have to apologize for the gratuitous use of quotation marks. The sad thing is, I wanted to use more.

Quotations, the gateway to other punctuation!

Utah Springtime Haiku

2011-04-14T14:25:00.001-06:00

Utah April snow
Are there any solutions?
Global warming please!

Soccer practice and the gym

2011-04-14T09:47:00.003-06:00

So this is what Spring soccer practice looks like in Utah. The funny thing is this was right before it got bad. I just thought it was cool looking seeing the clouds move in and collide with the mountains. Then it got windy, then rainy, then we started to see lightning in the distance at the end of practice.

It had been a pretty nice day, then we had a 10 degree temperature drop.

So after practice I decided to hit the gym. I'm not sure that was a great decision. Our trainer told us that he had been told that all the workouts were hard, so he was going to show us a hard workout.

I was never very big on jumping rope, even when I was young. I was decent at it, I just didn't think it was that exciting. That being said, I'm less of a fan now. We started the workout with 500 "jumps" over the jump rope. I can get out about 100 before I step on the rope. This is a huge improvement from when we started at <a HREF="http://muirfitness.com" target="_blank">Firehouse Fitness</a>, when I could only get out 20, and could only do about 80 total in one workout. I did have to teach my wife not to double bounce or you do twice the work, and it takes forever.

After the jump rope, we moved to 100 exercise band touch and reach. You take a heavy exercise band, stand on it with the handles in your hand, spread your feet apart, then squat down and touch the floor and stand up and press your arms all the way up. (I never did this as a kid but wouldn't have liked it either.)

We then moved into mountain climbers with our hands on a medicine ball. Mountain climbers are the exercise where you have one foot forward, and one foot back then jump and switch. The position of your feet. We did 200 of these.

Now to relax from these fairly aerobic types of exercises we did 100 jack knifes. We laid down, put your arms above your head, and your knees together, then raise your arms and legs and touch them together. This is a wonderful combination of a crunch and a leg lift. I actually like doing these, just not doing 100.

After this, Jason wanted to get our hearts pumping again. So we did a new TRX exercise. He called them "body thrusts". As he was explaining the workout he looked at me and said, "No dirty jokes." This exercise consisted of taking the TRX straps and holding them like you are doing a row. This leaves you leaning back in a squat. You then lower yourself to the ground, son your behind barely touches, then pull yourself back up until you're on your tiptoes. I asked if it was meant as a row, or a shoulder exercise and was told that it didn't matter it was just meant to drain your energy and get your body working together. I started these and they seemed easy, but they did drain my energy.

After that he wanted us to run. This didn't excite most of us because of the weather I mentioned earlier. Jason managed to convince me to do the run. Only one other person did, everyone else threw 100 roundhouse kicks per leg to get their heart rate up. By the time I finished my run our class was almost over.

There were two more exercises, throw 200 punches with five pound weights in your hands, and 200 bicycle crunches. He did have me get in the final part of class, which he calls the "Ring of Fire.". It was jumping squats.

It was a really good workout, and helped me fall asleep quickly, even though the weather is so rough for April.

Eye troubles

2011-04-11T13:48:00.004-06:00

My oldest daughter has had some significant eye problems during her life. This weekend she started complaining about her eye feeling like it was bruised. The wife took a look at it, and there were some ruptured blood vessels in her eye, which always looks good.

I looked up broken blood vessels online, and it turns out they are pretty common. The wife was pretty freaked out, and since we have the number for the on-call doctor at the Moran Eye Center, she gave him a call. He basically reiterated everything I had found online, and followed with if it gets worse or starts hurting bring her in.

My wife, being smarter than me or the doctor, she got in touch with our nurse practitioner who told us it looked infected and that we needed to have it looked at on Monday.

So my wife has been into one doctor, and is currently waiting for our retinal specialist. They think her eye condition might be linked to her first retina detachment surgery. I'm blogging this from my phone, so I'll update it later, and include some more information about what I fin out, and her past surgery.

Update Hooray, it was nothing, well it is something, but nothing serious. The older daughter saw her ophthalmologist, and he didn't like the discoloration all the way around her eye. He got her in to the retinal specialist. He took some time getting to her, but when he looked at it said she would be okay. He was concerned that her scleral buckle was having problems. After looking at her eye, he said that it appears her eye experienced some trauma (the youngest child, most likely), and that it ruptured some blood vessels. He said she had surface blood, and that it should go away in the next week or so. The discoloration around the eye was from the fact that the blood followed the buckle around her eye. No surgery required!

"Don't hurt yourself showing off"

2011-04-09T19:20:00.003-06:00

We went to the gym today, and my back has been hurting a little, although today it felt much better. When we got there, there were five new people. It's nice to have more people coming to the gym. There were two guys from my wife's high school who were pretty buff, and a third, smaller guy, she didn't know. As the trainer broke us up into groups, he grouped the four guys together. My wife just looked at me and said, "Don't hurt yourself showing off."

Now I first lifted weights about 20 years ago. I know my limits. I have always been pretty strong, but realize I'm getting older, especially with my recent back incident. I didn't know these guys from Adam, and their opinion of me just isn't that important. I set out just to get my workout in.

Today was a heavy arm, and core day. We started out doing some dumbbell lifts. I started with my usual weight, and the new guys all started much higher. I finished pretty quickly, and they all had to drop down to smaller dumbbells to finish.

We then moved into some tire lunges. Only one of the tractor tires was out. I got started. When I was done with my first set, one of the other guys came over and started. When I started my last set, the other two came over. At this point, my wife looked over and saw me doing lunges at the same tempo as the other guys. We were all trying to look funny, four big guys going up and down in unison around one tire. My wife pulled the trainer over, and told him to watch out for me so I didn't hurt myself.

Well, we went through the workout, and I actually finished more exercises than any of the other guys, and felt pretty good about myself. I was not injured, nor did I show off.

As my trainer said afterward, "Be glad you have someone who looks out for you, and cares whether or not you get hurt." And I am glad. Love you honey, even if you worry a bit too much!

Attack of the citrus

2011-04-09T11:33:00.002-06:00

This is what happens when I cook. For the past month or so, I've been doing a lot of cooking on Saturday so I can have decent meals during the week.

Typically I marinate chicken, cook it, then eat it on a salad for lunch. My two favorites are a Greek souvlaki recipe, and a super easy fajitas recipe. Both require citrus, and garlic. What's not to love?

Today I decided I would try something new, well not new but the first time I've made it. I had a really good salad at Z'tejas. It was jerked chicken, with feta cheese and a vinaigrette. I looked for a jerk marinade recipe, but none of them sounded right. Finally I put in the restaurant's name and they had posted their recipe. It calls for 3/4 cups of chipotle chili, rosemary, basil, thyme, parsley, pepper, salt, vinegar, lime juice, and water. The only chipotles I had are in adobo sauce, and it has just added a little twist. This is really spicy, but when combined with the feta is just amazing. I have my chicken marinating, and will report back on the success, or failure, of this dish.

UPDATE: So I just finished cooking the chicken. I added the full can of chipotle in adobo, it was about 7/8 of a cup, and it was a bit much. I made the wife try some, but brought her a cup of water. She thought it was too spicy, and it is very spicy. I love the contrast with the feta cheese to mellow it out. I succeeded in making the chicken I wanted, but in cooking it on the stove top, I smoked everyone else out of the house. Next time I'll use the grill outside.

Fitness check

2011-04-06T12:31:00.004-06:00

So our trainer likes to do a little "test" every six weeks to see where everyone is. It is a standardized test, and the more I think about it, the more this sounds like PE class.

Anyway, this week was our testing week. We've been pushing pretty hard lately, I did a four minute static squat the other day, my wife did a five. We've been running more, and really working hard. We got to the gym, and started with a 3/4 mile run. Did some burpees, some push ups, some crunches, a 90 second static squat, and some more ab exercises. Finished in about 30 minutes. I couldn't believe how easy it seemed, but our trainer asked us if we could have done it six weeks ago, and the answer is probably not.

So the trainer wanted us to take a few days off to let our bodies recoup. So what do I do the first day away from the gym? Why, go to In-N-Out Burger of course. (As a side note, I haven't had a fast food hamburger in about three months.) And what do you order when you go to In-N-Out Burger? A Double-double with of course! And you can't go to In-N-Out without ordering fries.

Needless to say, I was content until I put my lunch into Livestrong's MyPlate food tracker. I ate more calories in that one meal than I usually eat in a day. There was more fat in it than I usually eat in two or three days. I guess that's why it taste so good.

The wife had a Relief Society activity, she left after we ate dinner and took my oldest daughter with her. I got the youngest to bed, and the other two watching TV. Then I thought I better get off my lazy butt and burn some of those calories. It was raining, and I wasn't feeling hardcore enough to go out jogging, so I just did calisthenics. I did 100 push ups, 100 crunches, and 100 squats. This morning I was down some more weight, so no regrets. In another three months I can go back.

Guess I won't get as much of a break from the gym as I'm supposed to though.

I'm losing it

2011-04-04T15:23:00.002-06:00

Weight that is. I started going to the gym about three months ago, and I'm down 26 pounds. Hooray me! I got down to this weight about a year ago, but a vacation and job change got memoir of the exercise habit and I shot back up (and then some.)

As you can see above, my actual weight was witheld because I feel bad about the undo stress I have caused the bathroom scale.

I have been tracking my health regimen using Livestrong's website. They have a huge nutrition and exercise database. Looking at my trendline, I'm losing a little over 12 pounds a month. Now that the weather is improving, some days, I'm going to start adding more cardio and see if I can accelerate that a little.

Wish me luck!

Sleep, on and off

2011-04-03T11:28:00.004-06:00

As my wife posted yesterday, our youngest was very tired. The oldest has a soccer game, and right before we left, the youngest fell asleep.

He slept through the game, and until we were almost home. He then stirred, and came into the kitchen where I was cooking. The youngest has a thing for oranges, mainly just peeling them. He grabbed an orange and walked into the front room. When I went to check on him he was asleep, doing a wall squat against our couch, with an orange in his hand. Needless to say he wasn't ready to go to sleep last night.

I on the other hand was very tired, so was the wife. Our solution? Turn on the TV, close our door, and try to ignore him.

Was it effective? A little, I woke up every 30-60 minutes. He finally fell asleep at about 2:15 a.m. He slept until 8:30 a.m., but with the "nap" he had yesterday he seems to be doing well. Now if we can just get him to stay awake long enough today.

Ab h@#!

2011-04-02T10:46:00.006-06:00

What you see above is the result of our workout this morning, and before you ask, yes it was that bad.

As I reported yesterday, we did a horrendous workout focusing on our core. My wife did not join me yesterday, so I considered staying home today, but was up anyway, and decided it would be good for me.

We showed up to the gym at the same time as our trainer. We went in the gym, and the previous day's workout was still on the board. No one else in the 8 a.m. class had shown up on Friday, so I was telling them all how bad it was. As I finished my recount, the trainer agreed, and added, "That's why we're doing it again today!"

There was a moan from the group, well at least me. We hit our 12 ab exercises, and before class my abs hadn't felt bad. As soon as we started in on TRX Pikes to Upward Dog (a useful video at the link), my core started to scream at me, and I started mumbling things I shouldn't. The lowest amount of reps for a single ab exercise was 15 (that was for leg raises) up to 40 reps (for things like bicycle crunches.)

Here is the list:

20 - TRX Pikes to Upward Dog

20 - TRX Pendulum

20 - TRX Mt. Climbers (We didn't do the pendulum at the same time.)

20 - Crunches holding a Swiss Ball between our feet, about two feet off the ground.

20 - Swiss Ball Pikes

20 - Swiss Ball Leg Lifts (although we didn't pass the ball to our hands this time, just up and back down.)

20 - Power Wheel leg lifts

20 - Power Wheel Leg Curls (You lie on your back, lift your hips, and curl the legs back towards your buttocks. Really works the hamstrings with the curl, and the abs by lifting your hips.)

20 - Power Wheel Pikes

40 - Crunches

40 - Bicycle Crunches

15 - Leg Lifts

That was the end of abs. We then moved on to a run, which was about a mile.

This moved into the second stage of the workout.

15 - Medicine ball "Hop-Touch-Reach" (I know the video is of burpies, which is another difficult workout, but picture the first variation, holding a medicine ball.)

50 - Round house kicks per leg

100 - Walking lunges

30 - Swiss Ball Jumping Squats (I couldn't find a video of this, but you place a swiss ball in your lower back, against a wall. You start with your feet apart, jump up and bring your feet together and go into a narrow stance squat. Then you jump back out and do a wide stance squat. Every two squats counts as one for the rep count.)

4 lengths of the gym crawling like a bear. (You get into the upward dog yoga stance, and alternate hands and feet. It looks like Balu in the Jungle Book.)

Then we were supposed to do the ab portion again, but no one got that far.

Good workout, my abs hurt, and now I have to go be comatose somewhere. Enjoy your Saturday!

Thank goodness it's Friday, too bad it's April Fools Day.

2011-04-01T10:43:00.004-06:00

Ah Friday, the beginning of the weekend, and more importantly the end of the work week.

My folks couldn't watch the youngest today, and my wife had to work this morning, so I took half a day of vacation. Since I didn't have to worry about catching the train this morning, I decided to hit the 6 a.m. class at the gym. I love to go to the gym in the morning, it wakes me up and gets me ready for the day. You start the day with all the wonderful endorphins. I hate to go to the gym in the morning, because you get your buttocks handed to you.

This morning we focused on our abs, and did 12 different ab exercises in a row to start off. We then went for a run, and I knocked over two minutes of my time from the last run. (We don't run quite a mile, but it's close.) We then hit the burnout phase of the workout and I had to throw 100 round house kicks, and do 100 walking lunges. That sucked.

On a side note, last night at the gym I flipped a tractor tire that weighs about 650 pounds. That made me feel good, and impressed our trainer.

Since I was so awake, I've done a ton (almost literally) of laundry, washed the dishes, and been a jungle gym for the youngest.

Here you see him trying to climb, and then either try to sit or lay on our headboard. The only way to reach such heights? Climb Dad's legs.

When I got home from the gym I did have to deal with my children trying to play practical jokes on each other. The oldest daughter slipped her iPod under the oldest door with a creepy message on it. So he tried to get her by taping down the sprayer on the kitchen faucet (the funny thing about that is he did get his other sister when he was trying to wash a spoon for her.) Then it turned into bickering and arguing about who was going to get each other. I finally had to threaten to get involved unless they got ready for school. Seemed to work for me, but my wife is pulling out her hair.

I might have to update this later, "if" I get involved in the April Fool's Day.

Weird bumps on my legs!

2011-03-30T13:52:00.002-06:00

After getting home from the gym last night, I was stretching out my calves. I was bragging (if you ask my wife) that they were pretty buff.

My 12 year old walked over and said, "Dad, they might be, but you've got weird bumps on them.".

I had to explain that those were muscles. He said, "Oh, I better do my soccer exercises." and started doing push ups and sit ups.

Overheard while watching a video with the kids...

2011-03-29T09:36:00.002-06:00

We watched "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" last night. At some point someone asks the question, "Who do you think you are, Braveheart?"

My oldest asked who Braveheart was, and my seven year old responded, "He's from the Care Bears. He was the lion!"

Jason's great escape

2011-03-27T12:03:00.003-06:00

Jason wouldn't sit still in primary, so the wife and I took him with us to our class. He was okay, a little noisy at times.

Then we split up for Relief Society and Priesthood meetings. I chose a seat by the door, realizing Jason might act up. Our Elder's Quorum meets on the stage, and we have some risers in there someone made for a primary program. Jason's first move was to try and climb those. They were upright, and the studs made an enticing ladder.

I grabbed him, and got him to sit still using one of the finest traditions of parenthood, a food bribe.

He was content to eat M&Ms for awhile, but then made a quick escape by sliding down the stairs. Here is a nice after picture (I couldn't get my camera out quick enough for his head first slide down the stairs. It was very comando-ey.)

He ended up in his old nursery class coloring on a table for the last 5 minutes of church. (He was on the table coloring, not drawing on the actual table.)

The important thing is we survived.

Snow, it must be spring...

2011-03-25T10:19:00.002-06:00

Obviously it is officially spring here in Utah. Here is a photo, sorry poor quality, out the office window of our snowstorm.

Luckily if you don't like the weather in Utah you usually only have to wait 15 minutes!

Fun with my watch

2011-03-25T09:38:00.010-06:00

So my watchband wouldn't shut right this morning, and it was a bit loose anyway, so I thought I would take it apart. (Isn't that what a man is supposed to do when something doesn't work? You take it apart and pray you can reassemble it correctly, or at least so it works.).

I stared by removing two links. This made it snug on my wrist. I accomplished this with a push pin, paperclip, and a cheap (a swag item I picked up somewhere) multi-tool. I felt so much like MacGyver. Now the watch fits so well I'm not sure it's right. I have worn it a little loose over the past few years, and since I've been losing weight it could twirl all the way around my wrist.

With that done, I decided to see what was wrong with the clasp. I took it off of the band and saw one of the most disgusting sights I have seen in a long time. It appears that I have been carrying primordial ooze around on my arm.

Not wanting to catch malaria, I busted out the Clorox wipes and went to town. I'll spare you the most graphic parts, but here is a picture of the aftermath on the wipes. You'll all be happy to know that my watch is no longer contagious and now fits correctly. I will have to answer to the Department of Health, but promise to perform regular maintenance to prevent future development of WMDs.

Current events

2011-03-22T14:53:00.006-06:00

I've been reading through my blog, and realized that I don't talk about much besides the gym, which is okay. Then I thought about the reason, and realized my wife posts all the scoops on her blog (link opens in a new window).

Last night we went and had our follow up appointment at the U. Jason has officially been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. We are now seeing if there are any other programs that can help him, the U gave us some recommendation. I'll keep you posted.

If you want info on the family. Check out my wife's blog.

Anyway, I'm still recovering from my Saturday workout. We did a heavy leg workout, and my legs still hurt!

12 Years Ago Today

2011-03-18T12:54:00.006-06:00

12 years ago, my oldest was born. I remember getting to the hospital, my wife having Pitocin, and finally asking for an epidural. By the time they administered it, my wife was fully dilated, and we were kind of worried that the doctor wouldn't make it in before the baby came.

Duncan was born, and he sure was handsome (I say that realizing that all baby's are pretty ugly when they are born, but I'm biased in his favor.)

Duncan tormented me the early years of his life. My wife would have to work, and while she was gone, there was nothing I could do to settle him down. I usually took him for a walk, or to my mother's house so she, and some of my siblings could share in my misery. Sometimes I took him for a walk in the stroller in my mother's house.

He grew out of that pretty quickly, and has interests in lots of things. He loves (a little too much) playing video games, he has fun camping, recently completed hunter's safety, plays in the orchestra, plays soccer, and is just a great kid.

I want you to know how proud I am of you Duncan. You are doing well in school and life. Keep it up!

The Trial of the Stairs

2011-03-17T16:27:00.004-06:00

Okay, so for lunch I decided to get off my rear-end and walk about. I then had the most brilliant idea, I work on the 5th floor of a building, and have access to lots of stairs! I should walk them!

Being on the top floor, I had a nice walk down, and when you consider the parking garage floors, I went down nine stories. Each story has two flights of stairs between them. I quickly made it to the bottom, and turned around. I handled the first 12 flights pretty well, but started breathing pretty hard around the second floor.

Not wanting anyone to walk in on me in the stairwell panting, I pressed on. Around the 14th flight, my pace started to slow down. I made it to the 5th floor, but decided once up was enough for today. After 18 flights of stairs there was not too much spring in my step. I guess that means I would make a horrible New Yorker (because you know they all live on the 7th floor of a a walk up like in the movies.)

There are two sets of doors out of the stairwells, so I stood in between them and recovered, so as not to alarm the receptionist. I didn't want anyone calling the paramedics because they thought I was having a stroke.

I think I'll keep doing that, it was a really good aerobic workout, but I probably wont be able to make two trips for some time.

The Ides of March

2011-03-16T13:01:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was a long day! We had to have our youngest up to the hospital at 6 a.m. for some dental work. The dentist needed to put him under for her safety (he would barely sit still for her to look in his mouth, let alone drill and put in fillings.) We took the opportunity to have a sedated hearing test done on him at the same time.

Before we got started, they asked if we would like to give him some Versed to take away any anxiety and make it easier for the Anesthesiologist. We thought that was a good idea, so they gave him some, and he immediately calmed down, and sat on his mother's lap stoned.

The Anesthesiologist did something that hasn't happened before. He let us go back into the operating room with him while our youngest was going to "sleep". If I'd have known that we could go back, I would have opted out of the Versed.

After we finally got to the waiting room, around 7:30, we were in for the long haul. They called my wife back to post op around 9:45, and let me go back a little after 10. He slept until 11:45, and we didn't get out of the hospital until noon.

The sedated hearing tests revealed what we already assumed. He has a mild to moderate hearing loss in his right ear. The only tones his right ear hears normally are in the mid range, low and high tones are muted to him. He had eight cavities that had to be filled, including one crown, so he has a silver tooth.

We then had to run some chores, help kids with homework, and general nuttiness until the start of our oldest's Orchestra performance. It was pretty cool, they had five elementary schools and a jr. high orchestras there. It was about 45 minutes, but they sounded great. I'm stoked that my oldest is going to continue in Orchestra next year.

By this time I was exhausted, but I still had to hit the gym. I went in for a 30 minute workout that prodded buttock, but I felt really good after.

Maybe that is really why Julius Caesar should "beware the Ides of March". It is a busy day!

I'm so awesome

2011-03-13T14:31:00.003-06:00

Alright, I had to take a moment and pat myself on the back. I got up this morning, and let my wife sleep in, almost til noon. In the meantime, I cleaned our bedroom, took care of the kids, and cooked brunch.

Man I'm good!

Duncan's big day

2011-03-09T22:43:00.005-07:00

Well, we had a lot going on for Duncan tonight.

First he received his Tenderfoot rank in the Boy Scouts. Then he had to go to an interview with the Bishop to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. He was given homework from the Bishop, so we will be doing some reading in the Doctrine and Covenants about the oath and covenant of the Priesthood. I have to download the pictures, then I'll get some posted.

On another note, our Scout Master received a reward from the national headquarters. He is super dedicated, and really gets the kids through the program. He is kind of funny looking (I can say that because he is also my cousin.) He didn't have any sons, so I think he is compensating by being the dad of every young man in our neighborhood. Congratulations Gary, you deserve it.

With all the time at the church tonight, we couldn't get to the gym. I decided I would run on the treadmill instead. Well, I haven't been on it for awhile, and since then Jason had taken a drink and poured it on the walking belt. This acted as a lovely glue to keep the treadmill from running. I "fixed" it by loosing the tension on the belt. As I tightened the belt back up, I couldn't get the tension right. So as I was attempting to get it right today, I snapped the adjusting bolt off. That means that tomorrow I get to tear it apart, drill out a bolt, and see if I can fix it.

Wish me luck!

The Long Dark Lunch Time of the Soul

2011-03-08T12:31:00.005-07:00

Alright, I might have "borrowed" the title of this post from an author (unfortunately he is deceased, because I loved his work.)

So I've been working on getting a new website up for work, and most of my work is done. Now I have to wait for everyone to review it so we can take the site live. This will be exciting, as my children, and in-laws are some of the models for our photography. (I know my in-laws are really excited about this.)

As an aside, because of the photo shoot for the website my oldest daughter has now appeared in some of our print publications as well, and let me tell you how proud she is of that.

Anyway, since most of my work is done, and I'm stuck doing the little busy work things I've put off, it has been a long Tuesday, and it is only lunch time.

Since there isn't much new going on, I thought I'd tell you about the gym last night. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are cardio nights. When I think cardio, I think running or biking. Our sadistic trainer, Jason Muir, has different ideas.

We started off doing Bosu Touch and Reaches. You stood on the Bosu's platform, and with dumbbells in hand, reached down to the platform, and then pressed up above your head. These suck. Mainly because you are standing on half a ball. I had a much easier time getting on and balancing than my lovely wife (sorry Mel it's true), thanks to my years of skateboarding. Getting on a Bosu feels like getting ready to drop in on a half-pipe. You put your foot on one side, take a big breath to gather your courage, then throw the other foot on, and put your weight down.

We then moved on to doing push ups with your hands on medicine balls. This wasn't the worst, it was just a really deep push up.

After that we moved onto curls, upright rows, and triceps kick backs. These were all done at a light weight as fast as we could do them. Instead of dumbbells we used the exercise bands.

Then pikes with your knees on an exercise ball.

That was the warm up.

Working out with Jason is kind of like Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV. We have not yet chopped wood, but there are a couple of 20 pound sledge hammers in the gym. We now moved into the part of the workout that was designed to kick our buts.

Jason has four punching bags, they weigh between 50 and 75 pounds, and are about 3 feet long. Jason had us squat down, pick up one end of the punching bag, and flip it end over end. We would do this down an approximately 30 foot section of the gym, then back to the start, then down and back again. My quadriceps were burning. I really had to focus on form, so I didn't hurt my back.

Once we were done with that, Jason wanted us to teach our bodies to recover under pressure, so he didn't want us to take a break. We went right into lunges with a medicine ball on a rope (picture the old soap on a rope, but instead of lovely scented soap, there is an 8 pound medicine ball.) The rope loop that comes out of the medicine ball is about 1.5 feet long, and you hold onto the rope. As you lunge, the ball moves around, and forces your body to balance. This was especially horrible, because my legs were still very tired from the squats. Luckily this doesn't focus on all the same muscles as the squats.

Then we moved over to the actual punching bags (not the ones on the floor for flipping.) Here we had to throw combination kicks. We would throw a thrust kick with our front leg, followed by a roundhouse with the back leg. I like doing this, and it does get your blood pumping. The downside is this does use the leg muscles we had just tortured.

We finally moved into the last exercise, which focused on our abs. Using a little wheel with handles, we would sit on our knees, extend out as far as we could, then pull ourselves back in with our abs.

Now I said finally, but as with shampoo, we then repeated the whole workout two more times.

On top of that our trainer challenged us to do 500 sit ups this week, outside of class. Now it has been a long time since I did sit ups. We do a lot of crunches and leg lifts, as well as some different ab workouts in class, but not sit ups. He wanted us to do sit ups to help train the muscle groups in the core to work together, not to work on our abs. So after the kids were in bed, and my wife was showering I went into our living room and decided I would try to knock out 100 sit ups. I was surprised when I did 20 without stopping. I had to take a break every 20-30, but I felt great that I could do it.

The other good news is my back has not been hurting. I have focused on good form in everything I do, done my PT exercises, and occasionally ice it. It seems to be getting better.

Well, lunch is over and I need to get back to being productive. Have a happy Tuesday, and let's hope Wednesday isn't as slow!

Someone kicked in the door!

2011-03-05T16:48:00.003-07:00

I had sent my children to clean their rooms at about 11:00 this morning. All of the sudden my 10 year old runs upstairs yelling, "Dad, dad!" When I got her calm enough to tell me what was wrong she said:

"I was downstairs cleaning, and I heard a noise. It sounded just like someone had kicked in the back door and was coming in!"

As I hadn't heard anything, I told her she was probably okay. The good news is that no one has in fact kicked in our door.

Jason says pizza!!!!

2011-03-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

We stopped by my in-laws house tonight, and the only people there were my brother-in-law and his children. He had bought a pizza, and as we talked with my niece and nephew, Jason climbed up on a chair, looked at the pizza and said, "Pizza" three times. Of course we couldn't get him to perform again right then, as he was eating pizza.

We decided to stop and get the girls some pizza on the way home, and Mel decided she would tempt the boy again and see what happened. The real magic happens at about 42 seconds (I know one word isn't magic for most, but for a young, autistic child it's pretty good to get him to repeat anything.)

Physical Therapy

2011-03-03T13:49:00.002-07:00

As part of my back pain battle, I went to physical therapy (PT) yesterday. This is my first experience with PT. The therapist did many of the same tests on my that the sports med Doc did. After she finished she asked me, "Do you consider yourself extremely flexible?" I answered in the affirmative, because even though I have gained weight, I can still reach about 10 inches past my toes.

I thought it was a weird question, but the therapist just looked at me and said, "I agree. That's unusual for guys with a lot of muscle mass." That made me laugh. So the physical therapist wants me to start on for simple exercises. They are all about strengthening my transverses and lats. They are great, one makes me look like a panting dog, while one appears like I'm just laying there. I have to do them twice a day, and will go back and get more exercises in a few weeks. The therapist also gave me a great stretch for my hip muscles. I only have to do that once a day (I might choose to do it more.)

Anyway, I'm doing well, and will continue with the strengthening of my core.

Hopefully I'll have something more fun to post about soon.

I'm "back" in action

2011-03-01T08:51:00.005-07:00

Okay, forgive the stupid pun, but I couldn't resist.

As you know last week I was experiencing back problems, and after sitting in my desk chair for 9 hours on Thursday, and feeling the pain, I did something I thought I would never do. I called a chiropractor. Now I have nothing against chiropractors, but I've always been skeptical. I happen to know someone who runs an office for a chiropractor, so I called and set up an appointment. Below is how my adventure went.

My wife had to drop me off, and go pick up our son. So I went in and talked with the chiropractor, and had some x-rays taken. Then they had me lay on a table, and hooked up the electro-stimulus machine (I'm not sure what it is really called.) I laid on the table for 20 minutes while my back muscles were stimulated, with an ice sheet on my back. I'm not sure that ice sheet sufficiently describes the experience. My back felt as if the chiropractor was Darth Vader, and I was Han Solo, and they were trying to freeze me in carbonite. The main difference was the Empire was in a recession, so they didn't have a full-body freezer and had to do it a bit at a time.

My wife showed up again, as they asked me to stand up and move to the next room. I felt really good, so I pushed up off the table, and quickly laid back down. They had somehow frozen my back into the most painful position it could be in. It took me about 5 minutes to walk 20 feet, and I was miserable. I got on an upright device, and they pivoted me down until I was horizontal. The chiropractor had my wife look at the heels of my feet as I lay there. There were not level, they were about 1.5 inches out of level, and the chiropractor told her that was one of the reasons my back hurt. He did some work on me, and brought them back into level. (I hope my use of carpentry terms makes sense, it's the only way I can describe it.)

He raised me up, and I thought I was done, but my back still hurt. He had me sit in a chair, and popped, I mean aligned my neck. That felt great, but again not much for my back. He had me stand up, and move to another room where the real magic would take place. I laid down, on my side this time, and my back was aligned. By this I mean that a 200 pound man climbed up on me, and focused all of his weight and strength on one of my arms, and one of my legs. It was great! He used the shampoo technique, it was align, reverse, repeat. My back felt so much better. I was a little bit tender still, but it was livable. I went back in the next day, and had the same experience, but this time the ice sheet didn't freeze me in pain.

Well, long-story short, I am down up and around, and have just a little tenderness in my back. I went to the gym last night for the first time since the chiropractor. My back was a little sore after, but I iced it, and it feels fine this morning.

As for how the gym is going, my wife wanted me to post this picture to show my progress. The picture on the left is me in 2006, the first day of work in a new office (I found it on our corporate intranet yesterday,) the picture on the right is a self portrait from yesterday. In between these two pictures I put on about 15 pounds, so in the second picture I'm only about five pounds lighter than the first picture. I think that I've slimmed down noticeably, but then again I'm biased!

Oh my aching back!

2011-02-23T15:31:00.007-07:00

Okay, so it has been a long time since I posted anything. Right now I'm laid up with a bad back. Luckily it is not too serious, only over-training on my legs.

About 6 weeks ago, my wife and I joined a gym, Firehouse Fitness. It has been great. We've made lots of new friends, and the trainer "prods some serious buttocks". So far I've lost about 20 pounds. I've taken about 2 inches off the circumference of my chest, and slightly less off of my waist. The real difference has been, for lack of a better word, the density of my muscles. According to this body fat analyzer, my body fat has decreased by about 10%. Not too bad.

This brings us to my current predicament. One of the main focuses of our training is squats, lunges, burpees, hop touches, etc. When I went to the gym on Monday we had a cardio day, which included a lot of functional exercises focusing on squats, and kicks. To end the workout we did a squat burnout. During our second 90 second squat my legs cramped. I stretched out, and left not thinking much about it. By the time I got home my back was killing me. I've found that I can relieve the pressure on my back by massaging my hip joints. The doctor this morning basically told me to pull back a little on the lower body (he doesn't want me to stop going to the gym), and he has me going to the physical therapist to get some exercises to help tighten my core up, and make my body work better together. He thinks in the next few weeks I should see this pain go away.

Anyone who wants a great workout, come to Firehouse Fitness on any Saturday morning. Our trainer offers free workouts on Saturdays. (I know that sounds like an ad, but I just really like the gym. I have not been given any reimbursement for this plug, but am open to that idea!)

I'll keep you posted on my progress.